DART Act of 2019

116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 2204 AN ACT To allow the Federal Communications Commission to carry out a pilot program under which voice service providers could block certain automated calls, and for other pur- poses. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 2 † S 2204 ES SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Data Analytics 2 Robocall Technology Act of 2019’’ or the ‘‘DART Act of 3 2019’’. 4 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 5 In this Act— 6 (1) the term ‘‘Commission’’ means the Federal 7 Communications Commission; 8 (2) the term ‘‘covered ruling’’ means the ‘‘De- 9 claratory Ruling and Third Further Notice of Pro- 10 posed Rulemaking in the matter of Advanced Meth- 11 ods to Target and Eliminate Unlawful Robocalls’’, 12 adopted by the Commission on June 6, 2019 (FCC 13 19–51; CG Docket No. 17–59); 14 (3) the term ‘‘public safety answering point’’ 15 has the meaning given the term in section 222(h) of 16 the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 17 222(h)); and 18 (4) the term ‘‘voice service’’ means any service 19 that— 20 (A) is interconnected with the public 21 switched telephone network; and 22 (B) furnishes voice communications to an 23 end user using resources from the North Amer- 24 ican Numbering Plan or any successor to the 25 North American Numbering Plan adopted by 26 3 † S 2204 ES the Commission under section 251(e)(1) of the 1 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 2 251(e)(1)). 3 SEC. 3. RULEMAKING. 4 Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment 5 of this Act, the Commission shall initiate a rulemaking 6 to consider establishing a process under which the Com- 7 mission shall maintain a list of numbers that are not eligi- 8 ble to be blocked by a voice service provider, which may 9 include a number used— 10 (1) for outgoing calls by a public safety answer- 11 ing point or a similar facility that is designated to 12 originate or route emergency calls; 13 (2) to originate calls from a government entity, 14 such as a call generated during an emergency; 15 (3) by a school, or a similar institution, to pro- 16 vide school-related notifications, such as a notifica- 17 tion regarding— 18 (A) a weather-related closure; or 19 (B) the existence of an emergency affect- 20 ing a school or students attending a school; and 21 (4) for similar or emergency purposes, as deter- 22 mined appropriate by the Commission. 23 4 † S 2204 ES SEC. 4. REPORTS ON DEPLOYMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION 1 OF CALL BLOCKING AND CALLER ID AUTHEN- 2 TICATION. 3 Not later than 180 days after the date on which the 4 Commission receives any report under paragraph 90 of the 5 covered ruling, the Commission shall submit to the Com- 6 mittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the 7 Senate and the Committee on Energy and Commerce of 8 the House of Representatives— 9 (1) an analysis by the Commission with respect 10 to the effectiveness of various categories of call 11 blocking tools, as evaluated in the report; and 12 (2) any legislative recommendations of the 13 Commission relating to the report. 14 SEC. 5. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 15 Nothing in this Act may be construed to impede or 16 delay the analysis by the Commission of the most effective 17 means by which to maintain and administer a list of num- 18 bers that may not be blocked (referred to in the covered 19 ruling as a ‘‘Critical Calls List’’), as considered in the cov- 20 ered ruling. 21 Passed the Senate December 19, 2020. Attest: Secretary. 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 2204 AN ACT To allow the Federal Communications Commission to carry out a pilot program under which voice service providers could block certain automated calls, and for other purposes.