I 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3670 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to expand and clarify the prohibition on provision of inaccurate caller identification information, and for 

other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

DECEMBER 5, 2013 

Ms. MENG (for herself, Mr. BARTON, and Mr. LANCE) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to expand and 

clarify the prohibition on provision of inaccurate caller 

identification information, and for other purposes. 

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 ‘‘Anti-Spoofing Act of 

5 2013’’. 

6 SEC. 2. EXPANDING AND CLARIFYING PROHIBITION ON IN7 ACCURATE CALLER ID INFORMATION. 

8 (a) COMMUNICATIONS FROM OUTSIDE UNITED

9 STATES.—Section 227(e)(1) of the Communications Act 


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1 of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227(e)(1)) is amended by inserting 

2 ‘‘or any person outside the United States if the recipient 

3 is within the United States,’’ after ‘‘United States,’’. 

4 (b) SPOOFING SERVICE.— 

5 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 227(e) of the Com6 munications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227(e)) is 

7 amended— 

8 (A) by striking paragraph (4); 

9 (B) by redesignating paragraph (3) as 

10 paragraph (4); 

11 (C) by inserting after paragraph (2) the 

12 following: 

13 ‘‘(3) SPOOFING SERVICE.—The Commission 

14 shall prescribe regulations requiring a provider of a 

15 spoofing service to take such steps as the Commis16 sion may prescribe to verify that any person who 

17 uses the service is informed of any applicable Fed18 eral or State law.’’; and 

19 (D) in paragraph (8), by adding at the end 

20 the following: 

21 ‘‘(D) SPOOFING SERVICE.—The term 

22 ‘spoofing service’ means a service that permits 

23 a user to knowingly cause any caller identifica24 tion service to transmit misleading or inac25 curate caller identification information. Such 


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1 term does not include a service to the extent 

2 such service transmits or displays without alter3 ation caller identification information generated 

4 by another person.’’. 

5 (2) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 

6 227(e)(1) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

7 U.S.C. 227(e)(1)) is further amended by striking 

8 ‘‘paragraph (3)(B)’’ and inserting ‘‘paragraph 

9 (4)(B)’’. 

10 (c) TEXT MESSAGING SERVICE.— 

11 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 227(e)(8) of the 

12 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227(e)(8)) 

13 is amended— 

14 (A) in subparagraph (A), by inserting ‘‘(in15 cluding a text message sent using a text mes16 saging service)’’ before the period at the end; 

17 (B) in the first sentence of subparagraph 

18 (B), by inserting ‘‘(including a text message 

19 sent using a text messaging service)’’ before the 

20 period at the end; and 

21 (C) by adding at the end the following: 

22 ‘‘(E) TEXT MESSAGE.—The term ‘text 

23 message’ means a real-time or near real-time 

24 message consisting of text, images, sounds, or 

25 other information that is transmitted from or 


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1 received by a device that is identified as the 

2 transmitting or receiving device by means of a 

3 telephone number. Such term— 

4 ‘‘(i) includes a short message service 

5 (SMS) message, an enhanced message 

6 service (EMS) message, and a multimedia 

7 message service (MMS) message; and 

8 ‘‘(ii) does not include a real-time, two9 way voice or video communication. 

10 ‘‘(F) TEXT MESSAGING SERVICE.—The 

11 term ‘text messaging service’ means a service 

12 that permits the transmission or receipt of a 

13 text message, including a service provided as 

14 part of or in connection with a telecommuni15 cations service or an IP-enabled voice service.’’. 

16 (2) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this 

17 section or any amendment made by this section shall 

18 be construed to modify, limit, or otherwise affect— 

19 (A) any other authority of the Federal 

20 Communications Commission under section 227 

21 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 

22 227) or the CAN–SPAM Act of 2003 (15 

23 U.S.C. 7701 et seq.) to interpret a call to in24 clude a text message; or 


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1 (B) any rule or order adopted by the Com2 mission under such section or such Act that 

3 provides that a call includes a text message. 

4 (d) COVERAGE OF OUTGOING-CALL-ONLY IP-EN5 ABLED VOICE SERVICE.—Section 227(e)(8)(C) of the 

6 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227(e)(8)(C)) is 

7 amended by striking ‘‘has the meaning’’ and all that fol8 lows and inserting ‘‘means the provision of real-time voice 

9 communications offered to the public, or such class of 

10 users as to be effectively available to the public, trans11 mitted using Internet protocol, or a successor protocol, 

12 (whether part of a bundle of services or separately) with 

13 interconnection capability such that the service can origi14 nate traffic to, or terminate traffic from, the public 

15 switched telephone network, or a successor network.’’. 

16 (e) REGULATIONS.— 

17 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 227(e)(4)(A) of the 

18 Communications Act of 1934, as redesignated, is 

19 amended by striking ‘‘Not later than 6 months after 

20 the date of enactment of the Truth in Caller ID Act 

21 of 2009, the Commission’’ and inserting ‘‘The Com22 mission’’. 

23 (2) DEADLINE.—The Federal Communications 

24 Commission shall prescribe regulations to implement 

25 the amendments made by this section not later than 


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1 18 months after the date of the enactment of this 

2 Act. 

3 (f) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 

4 this section shall take effect on the date that is 6 months 

5 after the date on which the Federal Communications Com6 mission prescribes regulations to implement the amend7 ments made by this section. 

Æ 


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