II 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 704 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit manipulation of 

caller identification information. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 28, 2007 

Mr. NELSON of Florida (for himself and Ms. SNOWE) introduced the following 

bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, 

Science, and Transportation 

A BILL 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit 

manipulation of caller identification information. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Truth in Caller ID 

5 Act of 2007’’. 

6 SEC. 2. PROHIBITION REGARDING MANIPULATION OF 

7 CALLER IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION. 

8 Section 227 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

9 U.S.C. 227) is amended— 


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1 (1) by redesignating subsections (e), (f), and 

2 (g) as subsections (f), (g), and (h), respectively; and 

3 (2) by inserting after subsection (d) the fol4 lowing new subsection: 

5 ‘‘(e) PROHIBITION ON PROVISION OF INACCURATE

6 CALLER IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION.— 

7 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—It shall be unlawful for any 

8 person within the United States, in connection with 

9 any telecommunications service or IP-enabled voice 

10 service, to cause any caller identification service to 

11 transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identifica12 tion information, unless such transmission is ex13 empted pursuant to paragraph (3)(B). 

14 ‘‘(2) PROTECTION FOR BLOCKING CALLER

15 IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION.—Nothing in this 

16 subsection may be construed to prevent or restrict 

17 any person from blocking the capability of any caller 

18 identification service to transmit caller identification 

19 information. 

20 ‘‘(3) REGULATIONS.— 

21 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 6 

22 months after the enactment of this subsection, 

23 the Commission shall prescribe regulations to 

24 implement this subsection. 

25 ‘‘(B) CONTENT OF REGULATIONS.— 


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1 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The regulations 

2 required under subparagraph (A) shall in3 clude such exemptions from the prohibition 

4 under paragraph (1) as the Commission 

5 determines appropriate. 

6 ‘‘(ii) SPECIFIC EXEMPTION FOR LAW

7 ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES OR COURT OR8 DERS.—The regulations required under 

9 subparagraph (A) shall exempt from the 

10 prohibition under paragraph (1) trans11 missions in connection with— 

12 ‘‘(I) any authorized activity of a 

13 law enforcement agency; or 

14 ‘‘(II) a court order that specifi15 cally authorizes the use of caller iden16 tification manipulation. 

17 ‘‘(4) REPORT.—Not later than 6 months after 

18 the enactment of this subsection, the Commission 

19 shall report to Congress whether additional legisla20 tion is necessary to prohibit the provision of inac21 curate caller identification information in tech22 nologies that are successor or replacement tech23 nologies to telecommunications service or IP-enabled 

24 voice service. 

25 ‘‘(5) PENALTIES.— 


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1 ‘‘(A) CIVIL FORFEITURE.— 

2 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Any person that is 

3 determined by the Commission, in accord4 ance with paragraphs (3) and (4) of sec5 tion 503(b), to have violated this sub6 section shall be liable to the United States 

7 for a forfeiture penalty. A forfeiture pen8 alty under this paragraph shall be in addi9 tion to any other penalty provided for by 

10 this Act. The amount of the forfeiture pen11 alty determined under this paragraph shall 

12 not exceed $10,000 for each violation, or 3 

13 times that amount for each day of a con14 tinuing violation, except that the amount 

15 assessed for any continuing violation shall 

16 not exceed a total of $1,000,000 for any 

17 single act or failure to act. 

18 ‘‘(ii) RECOVERY.—Any forfeiture pen19 alty determined under clause (i) shall be 

20 recoverable pursuant to section 504(a). 

21 ‘‘(iii) PROCEDURE.—No forfeiture li22 ability shall be determined under clause (i) 

23 against any person unless such person re24 ceives the notice required by section 

25 503(b)(3) or section 503(b)(4). 


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1 ‘‘(iv) 2-YEAR STATUTE OF LIMITA2 TIONS.—No forfeiture penalty shall be de3 termined or imposed against any person 

4 under clause (i) if the violation charged oc5 curred more than 2 years prior to the date 

6 of issuance of the required notice or notice 

7 or apparent liability. 

8 ‘‘(B) CRIMINAL FINE.—Any person who 

9 willfully and knowingly violates this subsection 

10 shall upon conviction thereof be fined not more 

11 than $10,000 for each violation, or 3 times that 

12 amount for each day of a continuing violation, 

13 in lieu of the fine provided by section 501 for 

14 such a violation. This subparagraph does not 

15 supersede the provisions of section 501 relating 

16 to imprisonment or the imposition of a penalty 

17 of both fine and imprisonment. 

18 ‘‘(6) ENFORCEMENT BY STATES.— 

19 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The chief legal officer 

20 of a State, or any other State officer authorized 

21 by law to bring actions on behalf of the resi22 dents of a State, may bring a civil action, as 

23 parens patriae, on behalf of the residents of 

24 that State in an appropriate district court of 

25 the United States to enforce this subsection or 


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1 to impose the civil penalties for violation of this 

2 subsection, whenever the chief legal officer or 

3 other State officer has reason to believe that 

4 the interests of the residents of the State have 

5 been or are being threatened or adversely af6 fected by a violation of this subsection or a reg7 ulation under this subsection. 

8 ‘‘(B) NOTICE.—The chief legal officer or 

9 other State officer shall serve written notice on 

10 the Commission of any civil action under sub11 paragraph (A) prior to initiating such civil ac12 tion. The notice shall include a copy of the com13 plaint to be filed to initiate such civil action, ex14 cept that if it is not feasible for the State to 

15 provide such prior notice, the State shall pro16 vide such notice immediately upon instituting 

17 such civil action. 

18 ‘‘(C) AUTHORITY TO INTERVENE.—Upon 

19 receiving the notice required by subparagraph 

20 (B), the Commission may intervene in such civil 

21 action and upon intervening— 

22 ‘‘(i) be heard on all matters arising in 

23 such civil action; and 

24 ‘‘(ii) file petitions for appeal of a deci25 sion in such civil action. 


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1 ‘‘(D) CONSTRUCTION.—For purposes of 

2 bringing any civil action under subparagraph 

3 (A), nothing in this paragraph shall prevent the 

4 chief legal officer or other State officer from ex5 ercising the powers conferred on that officer by 

6 the laws of such State to conduct investigations 

7 or to administer oaths or affirmations or to 

8 compel the attendance of witnesses or the pro9 duction of documentary and other evidence. 

10 ‘‘(E) VENUE; SERVICE OR PROCESS.— 

11 ‘‘(i) VENUE.—An action brought 

12 under subparagraph (A) shall be brought 

13 in a district court of the United States 

14 that meets applicable requirements relating 

15 to venue under section 1391 of title 28, 

16 United States Code. 

17 ‘‘(ii) SERVICE OF PROCESS.—In an 

18 action brought under subparagraph (A)— 

19 ‘‘(I) process may be served with20 out regard to the territorial limits of 

21 the district or of the State in which 

22 the action is instituted; and 

23 ‘‘(II) a person who participated 

24 in an alleged violation that is being 

25 litigated in the civil action may be 


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1 joined in the civil action without re2 gard to the residence of the person. 

3 ‘‘(F) LIMITATION ON STATE ACTION

4 WHILE FEDERAL ACTION IS PENDING.—If the 

5 Commission has instituted an enforcement ac6 tion or proceeding for violation of this sub7 section, the chief legal officer or other State of8 ficer of the State in which the violation oc9 curred may not bring an action under this sec10 tion during the pendency of the proceeding 

11 against any person with respect to whom the 

12 Commission has instituted the proceeding. 

13 ‘‘(7) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this sub14 section: 

15 ‘‘(A) CALLER IDENTIFICATION INFORMA16 TION.—The term ‘caller identification informa17 tion’ means information provided by a caller 

18 identification service regarding the telephone 

19 number of, or other information regarding the 

20 origination of, a call made using a telecommuni21 cations service or IP-enabled voice service. 

22 ‘‘(B) CALLER IDENTIFICATION SERVICE.— 

23 The term ‘caller identification service’ means 

24 any service or device designed to provide the 

25 user of the service or device with the telephone 


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1 number of, or other information regarding the 

2 origination of, a call made using a telecommuni3 cations service or IP-enabled voice service. Such 

4 term includes automatic number identification 

5 services. 

6 ‘‘(C) IP-ENABLED VOICE SERVICE.—The 

7 term ‘IP-enabled voice service’ means the provi8 sion of real-time 2-way voice communications 

9 offered to the public, or such classes of users as 

10 to be effectively available to the public, trans11 mitted through customer premises equipment 

12 using TCP/IP protocol, or a successor protocol, 

13 for a fee (whether part of a bundle of services 

14 or separately) with interconnection capability 

15 such that the service can originate traffic to, or 

16 terminate traffic from, the public switched tele17 phone network. 

18 ‘‘(8) LIMITATION.—Notwithstanding any other 

19 provision of this section, subsection (f) shall not 

20 apply to this subsection or to the regulations under 

21 this subsection.’’ 

Æ 


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