[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2112 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2112

  To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to increase the forfeiture 
penalty for telephone service slamming and to require providers of such 
     service to report slamming incidents, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              July 8, 1997

 Mr. Franks of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. DeFazio, Mr. Oberstar, Mr. 
Clement, and Mr. Frank of Massachusetts) introduced the following bill; 
            which was referred to the Committee on Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to increase the forfeiture 
penalty for telephone service slamming and to require providers of such 
     service to report slamming incidents, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Telephone Slamming Prevention and 
Internet Connection Act''.

SEC. 2. INCREASED FORFEITURE PENALTY AND SUPPORT FOR UNIVERSAL SERVICE.

    Section 503(b)(2)(B) of the Telecommunications Act of 1937 (47 
U.S.C. 503(b)(2)(B)) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``(B) If'' and inserting ``(B)(i) Except as 
        provided in clause (ii), if''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new clause:
    ``(ii)(I) In the case only of any common carrier subject to the 
provisions of this Act who willfully or repeatedly fails to comply with 
section 258 or the verification procedures prescribed pursuant to 
subsection (a) of such section, clause (i) of this subparagraph shall 
be applied by substituting--
            ``(aa) `$200,000' for `$100,000'; and
            ``(bb) `$2,000,000' for `$1,000,000'.
    ``(II) Notwithstanding section 504(a), any forfeitures pursuant to 
subclause (I) shall be payable to the Administrator (as such term is 
defined in section 54.5 of the Commission's regulations (47 CFR 54.5)) 
for use only in providing Federal universal service support for schools 
and libraries and for health care providers in accordance with subparts 
F and G, respectively, of part 54 of the Commission's regulations (47 
CFR part 54).''.

SEC. 3. REPORTING OF SLAMMING INCIDENTS.

    Section 258 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 258) is 
amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(c) Reporting.--The Commission shall, by regulation, require each 
telecommunications carrier to report regularly to the Commission 
regarding each incident, of which the carrier has knowledge or has 
received a complaint, of a change in a subscriber's selection of a 
provider of telephone exchange service or telephone toll service 
without the authorization of the subscriber. The regulations shall 
require the reporting of information sufficient to identify the 
incident, including the service affected, the subscriber, the carriers 
from which and to which service was changed, and the approximate date 
of the change. The Commission shall make bona fide efforts to enter 
into agreements with State commissions concerning reciprocal reporting 
of such incidents.''.
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