STOP Robocalls Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 2386 To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to provide for information sharing regarding robocall and spoofing violations, to authorize the provision of a robocall blocking service with opt-out customer approval, and to provide for a study on information requirements for certain VoIP service providers. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APRIL 29, 2019 Mr. LATTA (for himself and Mr. MICHAEL F. DOYLE of Pennsylvania) intro- duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to provide for information sharing regarding robocall and spoofing vio- lations, to authorize the provision of a robocall blocking service with opt-out customer approval, and to provide for a study on information requirements for certain VoIP service providers. 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 ‘‘Support Tools to Oblit- 4 erate Pesky Robocalls Act’’ or the ‘‘STOP Robocalls Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:14 May 01, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2386.IH H2386 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 2386 IH SEC. 2. INFORMATION SHARING REGARDING ROBOCALL 1 AND SPOOFING VIOLATIONS. 2 Section 227 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 3 U.S.C. 227) is amended by adding at the end the fol- 4 lowing: 5 ‘‘(i) INFORMATION SHARING.—Not later than 18 6 months after the date of the enactment of this subsection, 7 the Commission shall promulgate regulations to establish 8 a process that streamlines the ways in which a private en- 9 tity may voluntarily share with the Commission informa- 10 tion relating to— 11 ‘‘(1) a call made or a text message sent in vio- 12 lation of subsection (b); or 13 ‘‘(2) a call or text message for which misleading 14 or inaccurate caller identification information was 15 caused to be transmitted in violation of subsection 16 (e).’’. 17 SEC. 3. ROBOCALL BLOCKING SERVICE WITH OPT-OUT CUS- 18 TOMER APPROVAL. 19 Section 227 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 20 U.S.C. 227), as amended by section 2, is further amended 21 by adding at the end the following: 22 ‘‘(j) ROBOCALL BLOCKING SERVICE WITH OPT-OUT 23 CUSTOMER APPROVAL.— 24 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—A voice service provider 25 may provide a robocall blocking service to a cus- 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:14 May 01, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2386.IH H2386 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 2386 IH tomer on an informed opt-out basis if the provider 1 does not charge a fee in exchange for such service. 2 ‘‘(2) RULES OF CONSTRUCTION.— 3 ‘‘(A) INFORMED OPT-IN BASIS.—Nothing 4 in this subsection shall be construed to prohibit 5 a voice service provider from providing a 6 robocall blocking service to customers on an in- 7 formed opt-in basis, whether or not in exchange 8 for a fee. 9 ‘‘(B) BLOCKING CALLS WITHOUT CUS- 10 TOMER CONSENT.—Nothing in this subsection 11 shall be construed to prohibit a voice service 12 provider from blocking calls without customer 13 consent as provided by rule or order of the 14 Commission. 15 ‘‘(3) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 16 ‘‘(A) ROBOCALL BLOCKING SERVICE.—The 17 term ‘robocall blocking service’ means a service 18 or technology that enables a voice service cus- 19 tomer to avoid receiving calls made in violation 20 of subsection (b). 21 ‘‘(B) VOICE SERVICE.—The term ‘voice 22 service’ has the meaning given such term in 23 subsection (e)(8). This subparagraph shall 24 apply before the effective date of the amend- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:14 May 01, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2386.IH H2386 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 2386 IH ment made to such subsection by subparagraph 1 (C) of section 503(a)(2) of division P of the 2 Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 (Public 3 Law 115–141) as if such amendment was al- 4 ready in effect.’’. 5 SEC. 4. STUDY ON INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS FOR CER- 6 TAIN VOIP SERVICE PROVIDERS. 7 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Federal Communications 8 Commission shall conduct a study regarding whether to 9 require a provider of covered VoIP service to— 10 (1) provide to the Commission contact informa- 11 tion for such provider and keep such information 12 current; and 13 (2) retain records relating to each call trans- 14 mitted over the covered VoIP service of such pro- 15 vider that are sufficient to trace such call back to 16 the source of such call. 17 (b) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 18 18 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 19 Commission shall submit to Congress a report on the re- 20 sults of the study conducted under subsection (a). 21 (c) COVERED VOIP SERVICE DEFINED.—In this sec- 22 tion, the term ‘‘covered VoIP service’’ means a service 23 that— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:14 May 01, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2386.IH H2386 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 2386 IH (1) is an interconnected VoIP service (as de- 1 fined in section 3 of the Communications Act of 2 1934 (47 U.S.C. 153)); or 3 (2) would be an interconnected VoIP service (as 4 so defined) except that the service permits users to 5 terminate calls to the public switched telephone net- 6 work but does not permit users to receive calls that 7 originate on the public switched telephone network. 8 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:14 May 01, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2386.IH H2386 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS