I 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 6026 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to clarify the prohibitions on 

making robocalls, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 7, 2018 

Mr. PALLONE introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to clarify the 

prohibitions on making robocalls, 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 ‘‘Stopping Bad 

5 Robocalls Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. PROHIBITIONS ON MAKING ROBOCALLS. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 227 of the Communica8 tions Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227) is amended— 

9 (1) in subsection (a), by amending paragraph 

10 (1) to read as follows: 


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1 ‘‘(1) The term ‘robocall’ means a call made (in2 cluding a text message sent)— 

3 ‘‘(A) using equipment that makes a series 

4 of calls to stored telephone numbers, including 

5 numbers stored on a list, or to telephone num6 bers produced using a random or sequential 

7 number generator, except for a call made using 

8 only equipment that the caller demonstrates re9 quires substantial additional human interven10 tion to dial or place a call after a human initi11 ates the series of calls; or 

12 ‘‘(B) using an artificial or prerecorded 

13 voice.’’; 

14 (2) in subsection (b)— 

15 (A) in paragraph (1)— 

16 (i) in subparagraph (A)— 

17 (I) by striking ‘‘any call’’ and in18 serting ‘‘any robocall’’; and 

19 (II) by striking ‘‘using any auto20 matic telephone dialing system or an 

21 artificial or prerecorded voice’’; 

22 (ii) in subparagraph (B)— 

23 (I) by striking ‘‘telephone call’’ 

24 and inserting ‘‘robocall’’; and 


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1 (II) by striking ‘‘using an artifi2 cial or prerecorded voice to deliver a 

3 message’’; and 

4 (iii) in subparagraph (D), by striking 

5 ‘‘use an automatic telephone dialing sys6 tem’’ and inserting ‘‘make robocalls’’; and 

7 (B) in paragraph (2)(A), by striking ‘‘calls 

8 made using an artificial or prerecorded voice’’ 

9 and inserting ‘‘robocalls’’; 

10 (3) in subsection (d)— 

11 (A) in paragraph (1)(A)— 

12 (i) by striking ‘‘telephone call using 

13 any automatic telephone dialing system’’ 

14 and inserting ‘‘robocall described in sub15 section (a)(1)(A) using any equipment’’; 

16 and 

17 (ii) by striking ‘‘or automatic tele18 phone dialing system’’ and inserting ‘‘or to 

19 make any robocall described in subsection 

20 (a)(1)(A)’’; and 

21 (B) in paragraph (3)— 

22 (i) in the heading, by inserting 

23 ‘‘ROBOCALL’’ after ‘‘VOICE’’; 

24 (ii) in the first sentence, by striking 

25 ‘‘artificial or prerecorded voice message via 


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1 telephone’’ and inserting ‘‘robocall de2 scribed in subsection (a)(1)(B)’’; and 

3 (iii) in subparagraph (A), by striking 

4 ‘‘all artificial or prerecorded telephone 

5 messages’’ and inserting ‘‘the artificial or 

6 prerecorded voice message contained in 

7 any robocall described in such subsection’’; 

8 and 

9 (4) in subsection (f)(1)— 

10 (A) by striking subparagraphs (B) and (C) 

11 and inserting the following: 

12 ‘‘(B) the making of robocalls; or’’; and 

13 (B) by redesignating subparagraph (D) as 

14 subparagraph (C). 

15 (b) MANNER OF REVOKING PRIOR EXPRESS CON16 SENT.—Section 227(b) of the Communications Act of 

17 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227(b)) is amended— 

18 (1) by redesignating paragraph (3) as para19 graph (7); and 

20 (2) by inserting after paragraph (2) the fol21 lowing: 

22 ‘‘(3) MANNER OF REVOKING PRIOR EXPRESS

23 CONSENT.—For purposes of this subsection, prior 

24 express consent may be revoked at any time and in 


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1 any reasonable manner, regardless of the context in 

2 which consent was provided.’’. 

3 (c) DEADLINE FOR REGULATIONS.—Not later than 

4 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 

5 Federal Communications Commission shall prescribe such 

6 regulations, or amend such existing regulations, as nec7 essary to implement the amendments made by this section. 

8 (d) REPORT TO CONGRESS ON TEXT MESSAGES.— 

9 Not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment 

10 of this Act, after notice and an opportunity for public com11 ment, the Federal Communications Commission shall sub12 mit to Congress a report on how best to limit the number 

13 of unwanted text messages received by consumers. Such 

14 report shall contain recommendations by the Commission, 

15 including recommendations for potential legislation. 

16 SEC. 3. CONSUMER PROTECTIONS FOR EXEMPTIONS. 

17 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 227(b)(2) of the Commu18 nications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227(b)(2)) is amended— 

19 (1) in subparagraph (G)(ii), by striking ‘‘; and’’ 

20 and inserting a semicolon; 

21 (2) in subparagraph (H), by striking the period 

22 at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

23 (3) by adding at the end the following: 

24 ‘‘(I) shall ensure that any exemption under 

25 subparagraph (B) or (C) contains requirements 


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1 for calls made in reliance on the exemption with 

2 respect to— 

3 ‘‘(i) the classes or categories of par4 ties that may make such calls; 

5 ‘‘(ii) the classes or categories of par6 ties that may be called; 

7 ‘‘(iii) the purposes for which such 

8 calls may be made; 

9 ‘‘(iv) the number of such calls that a 

10 calling party may make to a particular 

11 called party; and 

12 ‘‘(v) the obligation of the calling 

13 party— 

14 ‘‘(I) to provide the called party 

15 with a conspicuous consumer choice 

16 mechanism that permits the called 

17 party, at any time, to indicate that 

18 the called party wishes to stop receiv19 ing such calls from the calling party; 

20 and 

21 ‘‘(II) to stop making such calls to 

22 the called party if the called party so 

23 indicates.’’. 

24 (b) DEADLINE FOR REGULATIONS.—In the case of 

25 any exemption issued under subparagraph (B) or (C) of 


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1 section 227(b)(2) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

2 U.S.C. 227(b)(2)) before the date of the enactment of this 

3 Act, the Federal Communications Commission, shall, not 

4 later than 1 year after such date of enactment, prescribe 

5 such regulations, or amend such existing regulations, as 

6 necessary to ensure that such exemption meets the re7 quirements of subparagraph (I) of such section, as added 

8 by subsection (a). 

9 SEC. 4. REASSIGNED NUMBER DATABASE; SAFE HARBOR. 

10 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 227(b) of the Commu11 nications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227(b)), as amended by 

12 section 2(b), is further amended by inserting after para13 graph (3) the following: 

14 ‘‘(4) REASSIGNED NUMBER DATABASE; SAFE

15 HARBOR.— 

16 ‘‘(A) DATABASE REQUIRED.—The Com17 mission shall establish a nationwide database of 

18 telephone numbers that have been reassigned in 

19 order to provide persons making calls subject to 

20 this subsection with the comprehensive and 

21 timely information that such persons need to 

22 avoid making calls without the prior express 

23 consent of the called party because of the reas24 signment of the number called to a different 

25 party. The Commission shall ensure that inforVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:07 Jun 11, 2018 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6026.IH H6026

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1 mation in the database required by this sub2 paragraph is up-to-date. 

3 ‘‘(B) PROVIDER PARTICIPATION RE4 QUIRED.—The Commission shall require each 

5 covered provider to report to the database re6 quired by subparagraph (A) the reassignment 

7 of any telephone number to or from a sub8 scriber of such provider. 

9 ‘‘(C) SAFE HARBOR.—Beginning on the 

10 date of the establishment of the database re11 quired by subparagraph (A), in the case of a 

12 person who makes a call subject to this sub13 section to a telephone number that has been re14 assigned from a subscriber who had given prior 

15 express consent to be called by such person, 

16 such person shall not be found in violation of 

17 this subsection on the basis of not having the 

18 prior express consent of the called party to 

19 make such call, if such person shows that— 

20 ‘‘(i) such person had the prior express 

21 consent of such subscriber and such con22 sent had not been revoked as of the time 

23 of such call; 

24 ‘‘(ii) such person queried such data25 base before making such call, the query did 


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1 not show such number as being reassigned 

2 from such subscriber, and such person 

3 made such call within a reasonable period 

4 of time (as defined by the Commission) 

5 after such query; 

6 ‘‘(iii) such query did not show such 

7 number as being reassigned from such sub8 scriber as a result of an inaccuracy on the 

9 part of— 

10 ‘‘(I) the Commission or other en11 tity administering such database; or 

12 ‘‘(II) a covered provider in reas13 signing such number or in making a 

14 report to such database about the re15 assignment of such number; 

16 ‘‘(iv) such person did not otherwise 

17 know or have any reason to know that 

18 such number had been reassigned from 

19 such subscriber; 

20 ‘‘(v) such call would have complied 

21 with the requirements of this subsection 

22 but for the lack of the prior express con23 sent of the called party; and 

24 ‘‘(vi) such person— 


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1 ‘‘(I) took affirmative steps to cor2 rect the internal records of such per3 son with respect to such number; and 

4 ‘‘(II) reported to such database 

5 any inaccuracy that such person dis6 covered with respect to such number 

7 in such database. 

8 ‘‘(D) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing 

9 in this paragraph shall be construed to preclude 

10 the Commission from contracting with a private 

11 entity to provide the database required by sub12 paragraph (A). 

13 ‘‘(E) COVERED PROVIDER DEFINED.—In 

14 this paragraph, the term ‘covered provider’ 

15 means a provider of voice service or text mes16 saging service (as such terms are defined in 

17 subsection (e)(8)).’’. 

18 (b) CALLED PARTY DEFINED.— 

19 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 227(a) of the Com20 munications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227(a)) is 

21 amended by adding at the end the following: 

22 ‘‘(6) The term ‘called party’ means, with re23 spect to a call, the current subscriber of the tele24 phone number to which the call is made, determined 

25 at the time when the call is made.’’. 


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1 (2) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Section 

2 227(d)(3)(B) of the Communications Act of 1934 

3 (47 U.S.C. 227(d)(3)(B)) is amended— 

4 (A) by striking ‘‘called party’s line’’ each 

5 place it appears and inserting ‘‘telephone line 

6 called’’; and 

7 (B) by striking ‘‘called party has hung up’’ 

8 and inserting ‘‘answering party has hung up’’. 

9 (c) DEADLINE FOR REGULATIONS AND ESTABLISH10 MENT OF DATABASE.—Not later than 1 year after the 

11 date of the enactment of this Act, the Federal Commu12 nications Commission shall— 

13 (1) prescribe regulations to implement the 

14 amendments made by this section; and 

15 (2) establish the database required by such 

16 amendments. 

17 (d) TRANSITIONAL RULE REGARDING DEFINITION

18 OF COVERED PROVIDER.—Subparagraph (E) of para19 graph (4) of subsection (b) of section 227 of the Commu20 nications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227), as added by sub21 section (a) of this section, shall apply before the effective 

22 date of the amendment made to subsection (e)(8) of such 

23 section 227 by subparagraph (C) of section 503(a)(2) of 

24 division P of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 


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1 (Public Law 115–141) as if such amendment was already 

2 in effect. 

3 SEC. 5. ENFORCEMENT. 

4 (a) NO CITATION REQUIRED TO SEEK FORFEITURE

5 PENALTY.— 

6 (1) FOR ROBOCALL VIOLATIONS.—Section 

7 227(b) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

8 U.S.C. 227(b)), as amended by sections 2(b) and 

9 4(a), is further amended by inserting after para10 graph (4) the following: 

11 ‘‘(5) NO CITATION REQUIRED TO SEEK FOR12 FEITURE PENALTY.—Paragraph (5) of section 

13 503(b) shall not apply in the case of a violation of 

14 this subsection.’’. 

15 (2) FOR CALLER IDENTIFICATION INFORMA16 TION VIOLATIONS.—Section 227(e)(5)(A)(iii) of the 

17 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 

18 227(e)(5)(A)(iii)) is amended by adding at the end 

19 the following: ‘‘Paragraph (5) of section 503(b) shall 

20 not apply in the case of a violation of this sub21 section.’’. 

22 (b) 4-YEAR STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS.— 

23 (1) FOR ROBOCALL VIOLATIONS.—Section 

24 227(b) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

25 U.S.C. 227(b)), as amended by sections 2(b) and 


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1 4(a) and subsection (a)(1) of this section, is further 

2 amended by inserting after paragraph (5) the fol3 lowing: 

4 ‘‘(6) 4-YEAR STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS.—Not5 withstanding paragraph (6) of section 503(b), no 

6 forfeiture penalty for violation of this subsection 

7 shall be determined or imposed against any person 

8 if the violation charged occurred more than 4 years 

9 prior to the date of issuance of the notice required 

10 by paragraph (3) of such section or the notice of ap11 parent liability required by paragraph (4) of such 

12 section (as the case may be).’’. 

13 (2) FOR CALLER IDENTIFICATION INFORMA14 TION VIOLATIONS.—Section 227(e)(5)(A)(iv) of the 

15 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 

16 227(e)(5)(A)(iv)) is amended— 

17 (A) in the heading, by striking ‘‘2-YEAR’’ 

18 and inserting ‘‘4-YEAR’’; and 

19 (B) by striking ‘‘2 years’’ and inserting ‘‘4 

20 years’’. 

21 SEC. 6. ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS. 

22 Section 227 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

23 U.S.C. 227) is further amended by adding at the end the 

24 following: 


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1 ‘‘(i) ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS ON ROBOCALLS

2 AND TRANSMISSION OF MISLEADING OR INACCURATE

3 CALLER IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION.— 

4 ‘‘(1) REPORT REQUIRED.—Not later than 1 

5 year after the date of the enactment of the Stopping 

6 Bad Robocalls Act, and annually thereafter, the 

7 Commission, after consultation with the Federal 

8 Trade Commission, shall submit to Congress a re9 port regarding enforcement by the Commission of 

10 subsections (b), (d), and (e) during the preceding 

11 calendar year. 

12 ‘‘(2) MATTERS FOR INCLUSION.—Each report 

13 required by paragraph (1) shall include the fol14 lowing: 

15 ‘‘(A) The number of complaints received by 

16 the Commission during each of the preceding 

17 five calendar years, for each of the following 

18 categories: 

19 ‘‘(i) Complaints alleging that a con20 sumer received a robocall in violation of 

21 subsection (b). 

22 ‘‘(ii) Complaints alleging that a con23 sumer received a robocall in violation of 

24 the standards prescribed under subsection 

25 (d). 


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1 ‘‘(iii) Complaints alleging that a con2 sumer received a call in connection with 

3 which misleading or inaccurate caller iden4 tification information was transmitted in 

5 violation of subsection (e). 

6 ‘‘(B) The number of citations issued by the 

7 Commission pursuant to section 503(b) during 

8 the preceding calendar year to enforce sub9 section (d), and details of each such citation. 

10 ‘‘(C) The number of notices of apparent li11 ability issued by the Commission pursuant to 

12 section 503(b) during the preceding calendar 

13 year to enforce subsections (b), (d), and (e), 

14 and details of each such notice including the 

15 proposed forfeiture amount. 

16 ‘‘(D) The number of final orders imposing 

17 forfeiture penalties issued pursuant to section 

18 503(b) during the preceding calendar year to 

19 enforce such subsections, and details of each 

20 such order including the total forfeiture im21 posed. 

22 ‘‘(E) The amount of forfeiture penalties or 

23 criminal fines collected, during the preceding 

24 calendar year, by the Commission or the Attor25 ney General for violations of such subsections, 


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1 and details of each case in which such a for2 feiture penalty or criminal fine was collected. 

3 ‘‘(F) Proposals for reducing by half the 

4 number of calls made in violation of such sub5 sections. 

6 ‘‘(G) An analysis of the contribution by 

7 providers of interconnected VoIP service and 

8 non-interconnected VoIP service that discount 

9 high-volume, short-duration calls to the total 

10 number of robocalls, and recommendations on 

11 how to address such contribution in order to de12 crease the total number of robocalls.’’. 

13 SEC. 7. REGULATIONS RELATING TO CALLER IDENTIFICA14 TION INFORMATION AUTHENTICATION 

15 STANDARDS. 

16 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 

17 date of the enactment of this Act, the Commission shall 

18 prescribe regulations in WC Docket No. 17–97. 

19 (b) REQUIREMENTS FOR CALLER IDENTIFICATION

20 INFORMATION AUTHENTICATION TECHNOLOGY.— 

21 (1) IN GENERAL.—The regulations required by 

22 subsection (a) shall require providers of voice service 

23 to implement, by a date specified by the Commis24 sion, caller identification information authentication 

25 technology that has the ability to— 


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1 (A) verify that any caller identification in2 formation transmitted in connection with a call 

3 (including a call originating outside the United 

4 States if the recipient is within the United 

5 States) is— 

6 (i) accurate; or 

7 (ii) exempted under the regulations 

8 promulgated under paragraph (3) of sec9 tion 227(e) of the Communications Act of 

10 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227(e)) from the prohibi11 tion under paragraph (1) of such section; 

12 and 

13 (B) prevent a subscriber from receiving a 

14 call unless— 

15 (i) any caller identification informa16 tion transmitted in connection with such 

17 call is verified as described in subpara18 graph (A); or 

19 (ii) no caller identification information 

20 is transmitted in connection with such call, 

21 whether because a person has blocked the 

22 capability of a caller identification service 

23 to transmit such information in accordance 

24 with paragraph (2) of section 227(e) of the 


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1 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 

2 227(e)) or otherwise. 

3 (2) UNBLOCKING REQUESTS.—Such regulations 

4 shall require a provider of voice service to— 

5 (A) accept a request from a subscriber of 

6 such service, a calling party, or another pro7 vider of voice service for the caller identification 

8 information authentication technology required 

9 under paragraph (1) to allow the completion of 

10 a call in connection with which caller identifica11 tion information is transmitted but not verified 

12 as described in subparagraph (A) of such para13 graph; and 

14 (B) if such request meets criteria pre15 scribed by the Commission in such regulations, 

16 grant such request. 

17 (3) NO ADDITIONAL COST TO SUBSCRIBERS.— 

18 Such regulations shall prohibit providers of voice 

19 service from making any additional charge to sub20 scribers for the caller identification information au21 thentication technology required under paragraph 

22 (1). 

23 (c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

24 (1) CALLER IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION.— 

25 The term ‘‘caller identification information’’ has the 


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1 meaning given such term in section 227(e)(8) of the 

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

3 (2) CALLER IDENTIFICATION SERVICE.—The 

4 term ‘‘caller identification service’’ has the meaning 

5 given such term in section 227(e)(8) of the Commu6 nications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227(e)(8)). 

7 (3) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 

8 means the Federal Communications Commission. 

9 (4) VOICE SERVICE.—The term ‘‘voice service’’ 

10 has the meaning given such term in section 

11 227(e)(8) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

12 U.S.C. 227(e)(8)). This paragraph shall apply before 

13 the effective date of the amendment made to such 

14 section by subparagraph (C) of section 503(a)(2) of 

15 division P of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 

16 2018 (Public Law 115–141) as if such amendment 

17 was already in effect. 

Æ 


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