[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2526 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

103d CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2526

  To prohibit any charges on telephone bills for calls to 800 numbers.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

            October 6 (legislative day, September 12), 1994

 Mr. Harkin (for himself and Mr. Simon) introduced the following bill; 
    which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, 
                      Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To prohibit any charges on telephone bills for calls to 800 numbers.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) Reforms required by the Telephone Disclosure and 
        Dispute Resolution Act (Public Law 102-556) have improved the 
        reputation of the pay-per-call industry and resulted in 
        regulations that have reduced the incidence of misleading 
        practices that are harmful to the public interest.
            (2) Among the successful reforms is a prohibition on 
        charges being assessed for calls to 800 telephone numbers or 
        other telephone numbers advertised or widely understood to be 
        toll free.
            (3) Nevertheless, certain interstate pay-per-call 
        businesses are taking advantage of an exception in the 
        prohibition on charging for information conveyed during a call 
        to a ``toll-free'' number to continue to engage in misleading 
        practices. These practices are not in compliance with the 
        intent of Congress in passing the Telephone Disclosure and 
        Dispute Resolution Act.
            (4) Therefore, it is necessary for Congress to clarify that 
        its intent is that charges for information provided during a 
        call to an 800 number or other number widely advertised and 
        understood to be toll free shall not, under any circumstances, 
        be included or transmitted with a bill for telephone services.

SEC. 2. AMENDMENT TO THE COMMUNICATIONS ACT OF 1934.

    (a) Amendment.--Section 228(c)(6)(C) of the Communications Act of 
1934 (47 U.S.C. 228(c)(6)(C)) is amended by inserting before the 
semicolon the following: ``, except that nothing in this paragraph 
shall permit the calling party to be charged for the information or the 
call by means of a charge included on, or transmitted with, a bill for 
telephone exchange service or telephone toll service''.
    (b) Regulations.--The Federal Communications Commission shall 
revise its regulations to comply with the amendment made by subsection 
(a) of this section within 30 days after the date of enactment of this 
Act.
                                 <all>