I
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 90
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit telemarketers from
interfering with the caller identification service of any person to whom
a telephone solicitation is made, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY 3, 2001
Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit tele-
marketers from interfering with the caller identification
service of any person to whom a telephone solicitation
is made, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Know Your Caller Act
of 2001’’.
SEC. 2. PROHIBITION OF INTERFERENCE WITH CALLER
IDENTIFICATION SERVICES.
Section 227 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47
U.S.C. 227) is amended—
(1) by redesignating subsections (e) and (f) as
subsections (f) and (g), respectively; and
(2) by inserting after subsection (d) the fol-
lowing new subsection:
‘‘(e) PROHIBITION ON INTERFERENCE WITH CALLER
IDENTIFICATION SERVICES.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—It shall be unlawful for any
person within the United States, in making any tele-
phone solicitation—
‘‘(A) to interfere with or circumvent the
capability of a caller identification service to ac-
cess or provide to the recipient of the telephone
call involved in the solicitation any information
regarding the call that such service is capable
of providing; and
‘‘(B) to fail to provide caller identification
information in a manner that is accessible by a
caller identification service, if such person has
capability to provide such information in such a
manner.
For purposes of this section, the use of a tele-
communications service or equipment that is incapa-
ble of transmitting caller identification information
shall not, of itself, constitute interference with or
circumvention of the capability of a caller identifica-
tion service to access or provide such information.
‘‘(2) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 6 months
after the enactment of the Know Your Caller Act of
2001, the Commission shall prescribe regulations to
implement this subsection, which shall—
‘‘(A) specify that the information regard-
ing a call that the prohibition under paragraph
(1) applies to includes—
‘‘(i) the name of the person or entity
who makes the telephone call involved in
the solicitation;
‘‘(ii) the name of the person or entity
on whose behalf the solicitation is made;
and
‘‘(iii) a valid and working telephone
number at which the person or entity on
whose behalf the telephone solicitation is
made may be reached during regular busi-
ness hours for the purpose of requesting
that the recipient of the solicitation be
placed on the do-not-call list required
under section 64.1200 of the Commission’s
regulations (47 CFR 64.1200) to be main-
tained by such person or entity; and
‘‘(B) provide that any person or entity who
receives a request from a person to be placed on
such do-not-call list may not use such person’s
name and telephone number for telemarketing,
mail marketing, or other marketing purpose
(including transfer or sale to any other entity
for marketing use) other than enforcement of
such list.
‘‘(3) PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION.—A person or
entity may, if otherwise permitted by the laws or
rules of court of a State, bring in an appropriate
court of that State—
‘‘(A) an action based on a violation of this
subsection or the regulations prescribed under
this subsection to enjoin such violation;
‘‘(B) an action to recover for actual mone-
tary loss from such a violation, or to receive
$500 in damages for each such violation, which-
ever is greater; or
‘‘(C) both such actions.
If the court finds that the defendant willfully or
knowingly violated this subsection or the regulations
prescribed under this subsection, the court may, in
its discretion, increase the amount of the award to
an amount equal to not more than 3 times the
amount available under subparagraph (B) of this
paragraph.
‘‘(4) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this sub-
section:
‘‘(A) CALLER IDENTIFICATION SERVICE.—
The term ‘caller identification service’ means
any service or device designed to provide the
user of the service or device with the telephone
number of an incoming telephone call.
‘‘(B) TELEPHONE CALL.—The term ‘tele-
phone call’ means any telephone call or other
transmission which is made to or received at a
telephone number of any type of telephone serv-
ice and includes telephone calls made using the
Internet (irrespective of the type of customer
premises equipment used in connection with
such services). Such term also includes calls
made by an automatic telephone dialing system,
an integrated services digital network, and a
commercial mobile radio source.’’.
SEC. 3. EFFECT ON STATE LAW AND STATE ACTIONS.
(a) EFFECT ON STATE LAW.—Subsection (f)(1) of
section 227 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47
U.S.C. 227(f)(1)), as so redesignated by section 2(1) of
this Act, is further amended by inserting after ‘‘subsection
(d)’’ the following: ‘‘and the prohibition under paragraphs
(1) and (2) of subsection (e),’’.
(b) ACTIONS BY STATES.—The first sentence of sub-
section (g)(1) of section 227 of the Communications Act
of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227(g)(1)), as so redesignated by sec-
tion 2(1) of this Act, is further amended by striking ‘‘tele-
phone calls’’ and inserting ‘‘telephone solicitations, tele-
phone calls, or’’.
SEC. 4. STUDY REGARDING TRANSMISSION OF CALLER
IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION.
The Federal Communications Commission shall con-
duct a study to determine—
(1) the extent of the capability of the public
switched network to transmit the information that
can be accessed by caller identification services;
(2) the types of telecommunications equipment
being used in the telemarketing industry, the extent
of such use, and the capabilities of such types of
equipment to transmit the information that can be
accessed by caller identification services; and
(3) the changes to the public switched network
and to the types of telecommunications equipment
commonly being used in the telemarketing industry