[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 142 (Tuesday, October 19, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2133]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      KNOW YOUR CALLER ACT OF 1999

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                      HON. RODNEY P. FRELINGHUYSEN

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 19, 1999

  Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce a bill to 
prohibit telephone marketing companies, when making solicitation calls, 
from using any method to block or circumvent a recipient's caller 
identification service. The Know Your Caller Act of 1999 will provide 
much needed consumer protection for telephone subscribers who also pay 
for caller identification services. I urge my colleagues to join me in 
cosponsoring this bill.
  At all times of the day, but especially after work, during dinner, 
inevitably the telephone rings and our activities are interrupted to 
answer the telephone to hear an unsolicited telemarketer trying to sell 
you some product. You may politely explain you are not interested and 
ask the person to please identify on whose behalf they are soliciting 
so you can request to be placed on their do-not-call list and the next 
thing you know the person hangs up the telephone and you are unable to 
identify which company has invaded the sanctity of your home. To combat 
and filter out these ``nuisance calls'' and tactics people pay a 
monthly fee to subscribe to a caller identification service. It is a 
disgrace that some companies can block a subscriber's caller 
identification service.
  I have received many letters from my constituents who have subscribed 
to a caller identification service and they are outraged that telephone 
solicitors can deliberately block their service. Let me quote one of my 
constituents ``I have been receiving numerous telephone calls from 
unidentified numbers. I have caller identification service on my 
private telephone line, but the calling numbers are not displayed. I 
think it is intolerable and it constitutes a flagrant violation of my 
rights. I pay for a telephone line and caller identification service to 
avoid the hassles of telemarketing solicitations, but I do not feel I 
am getting my money's worth.''
  Mr. Speaker, in closing, this legislation would provide much needed 
consumer protection from telemarketing solicitors who block caller 
identification devices. People with a caller identification service 
should be able to identify telephone solicitors and have the ability to 
telephone them back to request to be put on their do-not call list. 
This bill would require telephone solicitors to display their name and 
a working telephone number on caller identification devices and 
prohibit the use of any method to block or alter such a display.

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