[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 20, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E5]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       PASSAGE OF S. 877 BY UNANIMOUS CONSENT ON DECEMBER 8, 2003

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                           HON. RICHARD BURR

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 20, 2004

  Mr. BURR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of S. 877--the 
CAN SPAM Act of 2003--and urge my colleagues to accept the technical 
changes made by the Senate. I also rise in an effort to provide 
clarification for our nation's professional, trade, and non profit 
associations who may be unintentional victims of the Congress's efforts 
to control the fraudulent and abusive practices of spam email through 
the CAN-SPAM Act.
  Trade associations have long provided representation for most of 
America's industries such as telecommunications, insurance, banking, 
realty, and transportation, just to name a few. Individuals or 
businesses that opt to join these associations do so in large part 
because of the outstanding benefits afforded to them, including reduced 
professional insurance premiums, continuing education opportunities, 
legislative awareness seminars, and conventions. While most of these 
opportunities are offered at a price, the cost is set at a greatly 
reduced rate than might otherwise be offered to non-members, primarily 
to offset operating costs, but also as a means of contribution to the 
furtherance of the association's non-profit status.
  As a matter of expediency, trade associations often communicate with 
their membership through email, as this method is the fastest, most 
convenient, and most cost-effective process for both the associations 
themselves and the members with whom the associations communicate. 
These emails are a valuable element of membership privileges agreed to 
by the member upon joining, as they keep the member apprised of 
upcoming events, industry-related products, and legislative alerts. 
These emails are restricted to circulation within the membership only, 
and excluding the general public. It is my belief that association 
members have essentially opted-in to the receipt of these emails by 
virtue of their membership, and that these emails would fall under the 
definition of ``transactional emails'' that S. 877 contains. Therefore, 
email between a professional or trade association and its members 
should be a protected and mutually agreed-to line of communication and 
is hence not included in the definition of spam in the CAN SPAM Act of 
2003.
  Mr. Speaker, I would also like to call attention to Section 
5(a)(3)(C), which provides an exception for not being able to receive 
the commonly-referred-to ``unsubscribe messages'' from commercial email 
recipients in circumstances where there are technical problems beyond 
the control of the sender. Although I'm sure that legitimate commercial 
email senders will make every effort to fully comply with the 
stipulations of this bill and receive unsubscribe emails whenever they 
are sent, I believe that the authors of this legislation understand 
that there may be short periods of time during which the sender is 
unable to receive unsubscribe messages because of necessary technical 
maintenance to the email systems receiving such unsubscribe messages.
  Additionally, where Section 7(b) of the bill provides that banking 
agencies have enforcement authority over their respective financial 
services providers, it is my hope that the Federal Trade Commission 
will coordinate with the various regulators of banking agencies in its 
efforts to implement the rules called for in this legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased with the important bill we have before 
us today. I strongly urge my colleagues to support this consumer 
protection and anti-fraud bill, and to quickly send it to the President 
for his signature.

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