TRACED Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 1602 To deter criminal robocall violations and improve enforcement of section 227(b) of the Communications Act of 1934, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MARCH 7, 2019 Mr. KUSTOFF of Tennessee introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To deter criminal robocall violations and improve enforce- ment of section 227(b) of the Communications Act of 1934, 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 ‘‘Telephone Robocall 4 Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act’’ or the 5 ‘‘TRACED Act’’. 6 SEC. 2. FORFEITURE. 7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 227 of the Communica- 8 tions Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227) is amended— 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:16 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1602.IH H1602 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 1602 IH (1) in subsection (b), by adding at the end the 1 following: 2 ‘‘(4) CIVIL FORFEITURE.— 3 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Any person that is de- 4 termined by the Commission, in accordance 5 with paragraph (3) or (4) of section 503(b), to 6 have violated any provision of this subsection 7 shall be liable to the United States for a for- 8 feiture penalty pursuant to section 503(b)(1). 9 The amount of the forfeiture penalty deter- 10 mined under this subparagraph shall be deter- 11 mined in accordance with subparagraphs (A) 12 through (F) of section 503(b)(2). 13 ‘‘(B) VIOLATION WITH INTENT.—Any per- 14 son that is determined by the Commission, in 15 accordance with paragraph (3) or (4) of section 16 503(b), to have violated this subsection with the 17 intent to cause such violation shall be liable to 18 the United States for a forfeiture penalty. The 19 amount of the forfeiture penalty determined 20 under this subparagraph shall be equal to an 21 amount determined in accordance with subpara- 22 graphs (A) through (F) of section 503(b)(2) 23 plus an additional penalty not to exceed 24 $10,000. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:16 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1602.IH H1602 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 1602 IH ‘‘(C) RECOVERY.—Any forfeiture penalty 1 determined under subparagraph (A) or (B) 2 shall be recoverable under section 504(a). 3 ‘‘(D) PROCEDURE.—No forfeiture liability 4 shall be determined under subparagraph (A) or 5 (B) against any person unless such person re- 6 ceives the notice required by paragraph (3) or 7 (4) of section 503(b). 8 ‘‘(E) STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS.—No for- 9 feiture penalty shall be determined or imposed 10 against any person— 11 ‘‘(i) under subparagraph (A) if the 12 violation charged occurred more than 1 13 year prior to the date of issuance of the re- 14 quired notice or notice of apparent liabil- 15 ity; and 16 ‘‘(ii) under subparagraph (B) if the 17 violation charged occurred more than 3 18 years prior to the date of issuance of the 19 required notice or notice of apparent liabil- 20 ity. 21 ‘‘(F) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Notwith- 22 standing any law to the contrary, the Commis- 23 sion may not determine or impose a forfeiture 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:16 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1602.IH H1602 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 1602 IH penalty on a person under both subparagraphs 1 (A) and (B) based on the same conduct.’’; and 2 (2) by striking subsection (h). 3 (b) APPLICABILITY.—The amendments made by this 4 section shall not affect any action or proceeding com- 5 menced before and pending on the date of enactment of 6 this Act. 7 (c) DEADLINE FOR REGULATIONS.—The Federal 8 Communications Commission shall prescribe regulations 9 to implement the amendments made by this section not 10 later than 270 days after the date of enactment of this 11 Act. 12 SEC. 3. CALL AUTHENTICATION. 13 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 14 (1) STIR/SHAKEN AUTHENTICATION FRAME- 15 WORK.—The term ‘‘STIR/SHAKEN authentication 16 framework’’ means the secure telephone identity re- 17 visited and signature-based handling of asserted in- 18 formation using tokens standards proposed by the 19 information and communications technology industry 20 to attach a certificate of authenticity to each phone 21 to verify the source of each call. 22 (2) VOICE SERVICE.—The term ‘‘voice serv- 23 ice’’— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:16 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1602.IH H1602 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 1602 IH (A) means any service that is inter- 1 connected with the public switched telephone 2 network and that furnishes voice communica- 3 tions to an end user using resources from the 4 North American Numbering Plan or any suc- 5 cessor to the North American Numbering Plan 6 adopted by the Commission under section 7 251(e)(1) of the Communications Act of 1934 8 (47 U.S.C. 251(e)(1)); and 9 (B) includes— 10 (i) transmissions from a telephone 11 facsimile machine, computer, or other de- 12 vice to a telephone facsimile machine; and 13 (ii) without limitation, any service 14 that enables real-time, two-way voice com- 15 munications, including any service that re- 16 quires internet protocol-compatible cus- 17 tomer premises equipment (commonly 18 known as ‘‘CPE’’) and permits out-bound 19 calling, whether or not the service is one- 20 way or two-way voice over internet pro- 21 tocol. 22 (b) AUTHENTICATION FRAMEWORK.— 23 (1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to paragraphs (2) 24 and (3), not later than 18 months after the date of 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:16 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1602.IH H1602 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 1602 IH enactment of this Act, the Federal Communications 1 Commission shall require a provider of voice service 2 to implement the STIR/SHAKEN authentication 3 framework in the internet protocol networks of voice 4 service providers. 5 (2) IMPLEMENTATION.—The Federal Commu- 6 nications Commission shall not take the action de- 7 scribed in paragraph (1) if the Commission deter- 8 mines that a provider of voice service, not later than 9 12 months after the date of enactment of this Act— 10 (A) has adopted the STIR/SHAKEN au- 11 thentication framework for calls on the internet 12 protocol networks of voice service providers; 13 (B) has agreed voluntarily to participate 14 with other providers of voice service in the 15 STIR/SHAKEN authentication framework; 16 (C) has begun to implement the STIR/ 17 SHAKEN authentication framework; and 18 (D) will be capable of fully implementing 19 the STIR/SHAKEN authentication framework 20 not later than 18 months after the date of en- 21 actment of this Act. 22 (3) IMPLEMENTATION REPORT.—Not later than 23 12 months after the date of enactment of this Act, 24 the Federal Communications Commission shall sub- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:16 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1602.IH H1602 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 1602 IH mit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 1 Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on 2 Energy and Commerce of the House of Representa- 3 tives a report on the determination required under 4 paragraph (2), which shall include— 5 (A) an analysis of the extent to which pro- 6 viders of a voice service have implemented the 7 STIR/SHAKEN authentication framework; and 8 (B) an assessment of the efficacy of the 9 STIR/SHAKEN authentication framework, as 10 being implemented under this section, in ad- 11 dressing all aspects of call authentication. 12 (4) REVIEW AND REVISION OR REPLACE- 13 MENT.—Not later than 3 years after the date of en- 14 actment of this Act, and every 3 years thereafter, 15 the Federal Communications Commission, after pub- 16 lic notice and an opportunity for comment, shall— 17 (A) assess the efficacy of the call authen- 18 tication framework implemented under this sec- 19 tion; 20 (B) based on the assessment under sub- 21 paragraph (A), revise or replace the call au- 22 thentication framework under this section if the 23 Commission determines it is in the public inter- 24 est to do so; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:16 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1602.IH H1602 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 1602 IH (C) submit to the Committee on Com- 1 merce, Science, and Transportation of the Sen- 2 ate and the Committee on Energy and Com- 3 merce of the House of Representatives a report 4 on the findings of the assessment under sub- 5 paragraph (A) and on any actions to revise or 6 replace the call authentication framework under 7 subparagraph (B). 8 (5) EXTENSION OF IMPLEMENTATION DEAD- 9 LINE.—The Federal Communications Commission 10 may extend any deadline for the implementation of 11 a call authentication framework required under this 12 section by 12 months or such further amount of 13 time as the Commission determines necessary if the 14 Commission determines that purchasing or upgrad- 15 ing equipment to support call authentication would 16 constitute a substantial hardship for a provider or 17 category of providers. 18 (c) SAFE HARBOR AND OTHER REGULATIONS.— 19 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Federal Communica- 20 tions Commission shall promulgate rules— 21 (A) establishing when a provider of voice 22 service may block a voice call based, in whole or 23 in part, on information provided by the call au- 24 thentication framework under subsection (b); 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:16 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1602.IH H1602 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 1602 IH (B) establishing a safe harbor for a pro- 1 vider of voice service from liability for unin- 2 tended or inadvertent blocking of calls or for 3 the unintended or inadvertent misidentification 4 of the level of trust for individual calls based, 5 in whole or in part, on information provided by 6 the call authentication framework under sub- 7 section (b); and 8 (C) establishing a process to permit a call- 9 ing party adversely affected by the information 10 provided by the call authentication framework 11 under subsection (b) to verify the authenticity 12 of the calling party’s calls. 13 (2) CONSIDERATIONS.—In establishing the safe 14 harbor under paragraph (1), the Federal Commu- 15 nications Commission shall consider limiting the li- 16 ability of a provider based on the extent to which the 17 provider— 18 (A) blocks or identifies calls based, in 19 whole or in part, on the information provided 20 by the call authentication framework under sub- 21 section (b); 22 (B) implemented procedures based, in 23 whole or in part, on the information provided 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:16 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1602.IH H1602 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 10 •HR 1602 IH by the call authentication framework under sub- 1 section (b); and 2 (C) used reasonable care. 3 (d) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec- 4 tion shall preclude the Federal Communications Commis- 5 sion from initiating a rulemaking pursuant to its existing 6 statutory authority. 7 SEC. 4. PROTECTIONS FROM SPOOFED CALLS. 8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 9 date of enactment of this Act, and consistent with the call 10 authentication framework under section 3, the Federal 11 Communications Commission shall initiate a rulemaking 12 to help protect a subscriber from receiving unwanted calls 13 or text messages from a caller using an unauthenticated 14 number. 15 (b) CONSIDERATIONS.—In promulgating rules under 16 subsection (a), the Federal Communications Commission 17 shall consider— 18 (1) the Government Accountability Office report 19 on combating the fraudulent provision of misleading 20 or inaccurate caller identification required by section 21 503(c) of division P of the Consolidated Appropria- 22 tions Act, 2018 (Public Law 115–141); 23 (2) the best means of ensuring that a sub- 24 scriber or provider has the ability to block calls from 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:16 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1602.IH H1602 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 11 •HR 1602 IH a caller using an unauthenticated North American 1 Numbering Plan number; 2 (3) the impact on the privacy of a subscriber 3 from unauthenticated calls; 4 (4) the effectiveness in verifying the accuracy of 5 caller identification information; and 6 (5) the availability and cost of providing protec- 7 tion from the unwanted calls or text messages de- 8 scribed in subsection (a). 9 SEC. 5. INTERAGENCY WORKING GROUP. 10 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Attorney General, in con- 11 sultation with the Chairman of the Federal Communica- 12 tions Commission, shall convene an interagency working 13 group to study Government prosecution of violations of 14 section 227(b) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 15 U.S.C. 227(b)). 16 (b) DUTIES.—In carrying out the study under sub- 17 section (a), the interagency working group shall— 18 (1) determine whether, and if so how, any Fed- 19 eral laws, including regulations, policies, and prac- 20 tices, or budgetary or jurisdictional constraints in- 21 hibit the prosecution of such violations; 22 (2) identify existing and potential Federal poli- 23 cies and programs that encourage and improve co- 24 ordination among Federal departments and agencies 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:16 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1602.IH H1602 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 12 •HR 1602 IH and States, and between States, in the prevention 1 and prosecution of such violations; 2 (3) identify existing and potential international 3 policies and programs that encourage and improve 4 coordination between countries in the prevention and 5 prosecution of such violations; and 6 (4) consider— 7 (A) the benefit and potential sources of ad- 8 ditional resources for the Federal prevention 9 and prosecution of criminal violations of that 10 section; 11 (B) whether to establish memoranda of un- 12 derstanding regarding the prevention and pros- 13 ecution of such violations between— 14 (i) the States; 15 (ii) the States and the Federal Gov- 16 ernment; and 17 (iii) the Federal Government and a 18 foreign government; 19 (C) whether to establish a process to allow 20 States to request Federal subpoenas from the 21 Federal Communications Commission; 22 (D) whether extending civil enforcement 23 authority to the States would assist in the suc- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:16 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1602.IH H1602 pbinn [Text truncated for display. 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