DART Act of 2021

II 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 357 To require the Federal Communications Commission to conduct a rulemaking to consider establishing a process under which the Commission would maintain a list of numbers that a voice service provider cannot block, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES FEBRUARY 23, 2021 Mr. CRAPO (for himself and Ms. KLOBUCHAR) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation A BILL To require the Federal Communications Commission to con- duct a rulemaking to consider establishing a process under which the Commission would maintain a list of numbers that a voice service provider cannot block, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Data Analytics 4 Robocall Technology Act of 2021’’ or the ‘‘DART Act of 5 2021’’. 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 16:05 Feb 28, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S357.IS S357 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 357 IS SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 1 In this Act— 2 (1) the term ‘‘Commission’’ means the Federal 3 Communications Commission; 4 (2) the term ‘‘covered ruling’’ means the ‘‘De- 5 claratory Ruling and Third Further Notice of Pro- 6 posed Rulemaking in the matter of Advanced Meth- 7 ods to Target and Eliminate Unlawful Robocalls’’, 8 adopted by the Commission on June 6, 2019 (FCC 9 19–51; CG Docket No. 17–59); 10 (3) the term ‘‘public safety answering point’’ 11 has the meaning given the term in section 222(h) of 12 the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 13 222(h)); and 14 (4) the term ‘‘voice service’’ means any service 15 that— 16 (A) is interconnected with the public 17 switched telephone network; and 18 (B) furnishes voice communications to an 19 end user using resources from the North Amer- 20 ican Numbering Plan or any successor to the 21 North American Numbering Plan adopted by 22 the Commission under section 251(e)(1) of the 23 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 24 251(e)(1)). 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 16:05 Feb 28, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S357.IS S357 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 357 IS SEC. 3. RULEMAKING. 1 Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment 2 of this Act, the Commission shall initiate a rulemaking 3 to consider establishing a process under which the Com- 4 mission shall maintain a list of numbers that are not eligi- 5 ble to be blocked by a voice service provider, which may 6 include a number used— 7 (1) for outgoing calls by a public safety answer- 8 ing point or a similar facility that is designated to 9 originate or route emergency calls; 10 (2) to originate calls from a government entity, 11 such as a call generated during an emergency; 12 (3) by a school, or a similar institution, to pro- 13 vide school-related notifications, such as a notifica- 14 tion regarding— 15 (A) a weather-related closure; or 16 (B) the existence of an emergency affect- 17 ing a school or students attending a school; and 18 (4) for similar or emergency purposes, as deter- 19 mined appropriate by the Commission. 20 SEC. 4. REPORTS ON DEPLOYMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION 21 OF CALL BLOCKING AND CALLER ID AUTHEN- 22 TICATION. 23 Not later than 180 days after the date on which the 24 Commission receives any report under paragraph 90 of the 25 covered ruling, the Commission shall submit to the Com- 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 16:05 Feb 28, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S357.IS S357 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 357 IS mittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the 1 Senate and the Committee on Energy and Commerce of 2 the House of Representatives— 3 (1) an analysis by the Commission with respect 4 to the effectiveness of various categories of call 5 blocking tools, as evaluated in the report; and 6 (2) any legislative recommendations of the 7 Commission relating to the report. 8 SEC. 5. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 9 Nothing in this Act may be construed to impede or 10 delay the analysis by the Commission of the most effective 11 means by which to maintain and administer a list of num- 12 bers that may not be blocked (referred to in the covered 13 ruling as a ‘‘Critical Calls List’’), as considered in the cov- 14 ered ruling. 15 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 16:05 Feb 28, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S357.IS S357 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS