Tracing Back and Catching Unlawful Robocallers Act of 2019

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 3434 To require the Federal Communications Commission to publish an annual report on suspected unlawful robocalls, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JUNE 24, 2019 Mr. BUTTERFIELD (for himself, Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio, Mr. SOTO, and Mr. GIANFORTE) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com- mittee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To require the Federal Communications Commission to pub- lish an annual report on suspected unlawful robocalls, 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 ‘‘Tracing Back and 4 Catching Unlawful Robocallers Act of 2019’’. 5 SEC. 2. ANNUAL ROBOCALL REPORT. 6 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 7 date of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, 8 the Commission shall make publicly available on the 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:21 Jun 28, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3434.IH H3434 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 3434 IH website of the Commission, and submit to the Committee 1 on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives 2 and the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transpor- 3 tation of the Senate, a report on the status of private- 4 led efforts to trace back the origin of suspected unlawful 5 robocalls by the registered consortium and the participa- 6 tion of voice service providers in such efforts. 7 (b) CONTENTS OF REPORT.—The report required 8 under subsection (a) shall include, at minimum, the fol- 9 lowing: 10 (1) A description of private-led efforts to trace 11 back the origin of suspected unlawful robocalls by 12 the registered consortium and the actions taken by 13 the registered consortium to coordinate with the 14 Commission. 15 (2) A list of voice service providers identified by 16 the registered consortium that participated in pri- 17 vate-led efforts to trace back the origin of suspected 18 unlawful robocalls through the registered consor- 19 tium. 20 (3) A list of each voice service provider that re- 21 ceived a request from the registered consortium to 22 participate in private-led efforts to trace back the or- 23 igin of suspected unlawful robocalls and refused to 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:21 Jun 28, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3434.IH H3434 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 3434 IH participate, as identified by the registered consor- 1 tium. 2 (4) The reason, if any, each voice service pro- 3 vider identified by the registered consortium pro- 4 vided for not participating in private-led efforts to 5 trace back the origin of suspected unlawful robocalls. 6 (5) A description of how the Commission may 7 use the information provided to the Commission by 8 voice service providers or the registered consortium 9 that have participated in private-led efforts to trace 10 back the origin of suspected unlawful robocalls in 11 the enforcement efforts by the Commission. 12 (c) ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.—Not later than 210 13 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and annu- 14 ally thereafter, the Commission shall issue a notice to the 15 public seeking additional information from voice service 16 providers and the registered consortium of private-led ef- 17 forts to trace back the origin of suspected unlawful 18 robocalls necessary for the report by the Commission re- 19 quired under subsection (a). 20 (d) REGISTRATION OF CONSORTIUM OF PRIVATE- 21 LED EFFORTS TO TRACE BACK THE ORIGIN OF SUS- 22 PECTED UNLAWFUL ROBOCALLS.— 23 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after 24 the date of enactment of this Act, the Commission 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:48 Jun 29, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3434.IH H3434 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 3434 IH shall issue rules to establish a registration process 1 for the registration of a single consortium that con- 2 ducts private-led efforts to trace back the origin of 3 suspected unlawful robocalls. The consortium shall 4 meet the following requirements: 5 (A) Be a neutral third-party competent to 6 manage the private-led effort to trace back the 7 origin of suspected unlawful robocalls in the 8 judgement of the Commission. 9 (B) Maintain a set of written best prac- 10 tices about the management of such efforts and 11 regarding providers of voice services’ participa- 12 tion in private-led efforts to trace back the ori- 13 gin of suspected unlawful robocalls. 14 (C) Consistent with section 222(d)(2) of 15 the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 16 222(d)(2)), any private-led efforts to trace back 17 the origin of suspected unlawful robocalls con- 18 ducted by the third-party focus on ‘‘fraudulent, 19 abusive, or unlawful’’ traffic. 20 (D) File a notice with the Commission that 21 the consortium intends to conduct private-led 22 efforts to trace back in advance of such reg- 23 istration. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:21 Jun 28, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3434.IH H3434 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 3434 IH (2) ANNUAL NOTICE BY THE COMMISSION 1 SEEKING REGISTRATIONS.—Not later than 120 days 2 after the date of enactment of this Act, and annually 3 thereafter, the Commission shall issue a notice to 4 the public seeking the registration described in para- 5 graph (1). 6 (e) LIST OF VOICE SERVICE PROVIDERS.—The Com- 7 mission may publish a list of voice service providers from 8 which other voice service providers may refuse to accept 9 calls, based on information obtained from the consortium 10 about voice service providers that refuse to participate in 11 private-led efforts to trace back the origin of suspected 12 unlawful robocalls, and other information the Commission 13 may collect about service providers that are found to origi- 14 nate or transmit substantial amounts of illegal calls. 15 (f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 16 (1) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 17 means the Federal Communications Commission. 18 (2) PRIVATE-LED EFFORT TO TRACE BACK.— 19 The term ‘‘private-led effort to trace back’’ means 20 an effort made by the registered consortium of voice 21 service providers to establish a methodology for de- 22 termining the origin of a suspected unlawful 23 robocall. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:21 Jun 28, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3434.IH H3434 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •HR 3434 IH (3) REGISTERED CONSORTIUM.—The term 1 ‘‘registered consortium’’ means the consortium reg- 2 istered under subsection (d). 3 (4) SUSPECTED UNLAWFUL ROBOCALL.—The 4 term ‘‘suspected unlawful robocall’’ means a call 5 that the Commission or a voice service provider rea- 6 sonably believes was made in violation of subsection 7 (b) or (e) of section 227 of the Communications Act 8 of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227). 9 (5) VOICE SERVICE.—The term ‘‘voice serv- 10 ice’’— 11 (A) means any service that is inter- 12 connected with the public switched telephone 13 network and that furnishes voice communica- 14 tions to an end user using resources from the 15 North American Numbering Plan or any suc- 16 cessor to the North American Numbering Plan 17 adopted by the Commission under section 18 251(e)(1) of the Communications Act of 1934 19 (47 U.S.C. 251(e)(1)); and 20 (B) includes— 21 (i) transmissions from a telephone 22 facsimile machine, computer, or other de- 23 vice to a telephone facsimile machine; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:21 Jun 28, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3434.IH H3434 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •HR 3434 IH (ii) without limitation, any service 1 that enables real-time, two-way voice com- 2 munications, including any service that re- 3 quires internet protocol-compatible cus- 4 tomer premises equipment (commonly 5 known as ‘‘CPE’’) and permits out-bound 6 calling, whether or not the service is one- 7 way or two-way voice over internet pro- 8 tocol. 9 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:21 Jun 28, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H3434.IH H3434 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS