[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 52 (Wednesday, April 14, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H2522-H2525]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRUTH IN CALLER ID ACT OF 2010

  Mr. BOUCHER. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 1258) to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit 
manipulation of caller identification information, and for other 
purposes, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 1258

       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 ``Truth in Caller ID Act of 
     2010''.

     SEC. 2. PROHIBITION REGARDING MANIPULATION OF CALLER ID 
                   INFORMATION.

       Section 227 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 
     227) is amended--
       (1) by redesignating subsections (e), (f), and (g) as 
     subsections (f), (g), and (h), respectively; and
       (2) by inserting after subsection (d) the following new 
     subsection:
       ``(e) Prohibition on Provision of Deceptive Caller ID 
     Information.--
       ``(1) In general.--It shall be unlawful for any person 
     within the United States, in connection with any real time 
     voice communications service, regardless of the technology or 
     network utilized, to cause any caller ID service to transmit 
     misleading or inaccurate caller ID information, with the 
     intent to defraud or deceive.
       ``(2) Protection for blocking caller id information.--
     Nothing in this subsection may be construed to prevent or 
     restrict any person from blocking the capability of any 
     caller ID service to transmit caller ID information.
       ``(3) Regulations.--
       ``(A) Deadline.--Not later than 6 months after the date of 
     enactment of this subsection, the Commission shall prescribe 
     regulations to implement this subsection.
       ``(B) Consideration of related regulations.--In conducting 
     the proceeding to prescribe the regulations required by 
     subparagraph (A), the Commission shall examine whether the 
     regulations under subsection (b)(2)(B) should be revised to 
     require calls that are not made for a commercial purpose to 
     residential telephone lines using an artificial or 
     prerecorded voice to deliver a message to transmit caller ID 
     information that is not misleading or inaccurate.
       ``(4) Law enforcement exception.--This section does not 
     prohibit lawfully authorized investigative, protective, or 
     intelligence activity of a law enforcement agency of the 
     United States, a State, or a political subdivision of a 
     State, or of an intelligence agency of the United States, or 
     any activity authorized under chapter 224 of title 18, United 
     States Code.
       ``(5) Savings provision.--Except as provided for in 
     paragraph (3)(B), nothing in this subsection may be construed 
     to affect or alter the application of the Commission's 
     regulations regarding the requirements for transmission of 
     caller ID information, issued pursuant to the Telephone 
     Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-243) and the 
     amendments made by such Act.
       ``(6) Definitions.--For purposes of this subsection:
       ``(A) Caller id information.--The term `caller ID 
     information' means information provided to an end user by a 
     caller ID service regarding the name or the telephone number 
     of the caller or other information regarding the origination 
     of a call made using any real time voice communications 
     service, regardless of the technology or network utilized.
       ``(B) Caller id service.--The term `caller ID service' 
     means any service or device designed to provide the user of 
     the service or device with the name or the telephone number 
     of the caller or other information regarding the origination 
     of a call made using any real time voice communications 
     service, regardless of the technology or

[[Page H2523]]

     network utilized. Such term includes automatic number 
     identification services.''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Boucher) and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Virginia.


                             General Leave

  Mr. BOUCHER. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on the 
legislation currently under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Virginia?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BOUCHER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Today the House considers H.R. 1258, the Truth in Caller ID Act. This 
measure was introduced by our colleagues Mr. Engel and Mr. Barton, the 
ranking member of our Committee on Energy and Commerce. It would direct 
the Federal Communications Commission to prohibit caller ID spoofing, 
through which a caller falsifies the original caller ID information 
during the transmission of a call with the intent to defraud or to 
deceive.
  Typically, caller ID spoofing involves a caller changing the number 
that would show on the call recipient's caller ID when that call is 
received. Spoofing has been possible for a number of years, but it has 
generally required very expensive equipment in order to change the 
outgoing call information. But with the growth of voice over IP 
telephoning, spoofing has become easier, and it has become less 
expensive, and a number of Web sites now are offering spoofing 
services. So its prevalence, unfortunately, is growing. That growth and 
the volume of spoofing makes necessary the legislation under 
consideration presently.
  The proliferation of spoofing technologies and services means that 
those who want to deceive others by manipulating caller ID can now do 
so with relative ease. Spoofing threatens a number of existing business 
applications, including credit card verification and automatic call 
routing, because these systems rely on the telephone number as 
identified by the caller ID system as one piece of verification and 
authentication information.
  At other times, however, spoofing may be used to protect individuals. 
I would note an example of domestic violence shelters that sometimes 
use spoofing to mask the identity of the caller in order to protect 
that caller's safety. By prohibiting the use of caller ID spoofing only 
where the intent is to defraud or deceive, this measure will address 
nefarious uses of the technology while continuing to allow those 
legitimate uses. In the domestic violence shelter situation, there is 
no intent to cause harm, which is an element of the crime of deception. 
Therefore, using caller ID spoofing to protect the location of a victim 
of domestic violence is not deceptive, and would be allowed under the 
provisions of the bill now under consideration.
  This measure on previous occasions, in fact in the two previous 
Congresses, has been approved in the House on the suspension calendar. 
A similar measure in this Congress has been approved by the Senate. I 
look forward to advancing this legislation today, and I want to say 
thank you to Mr. Engel, to Mr. Barton, to my colleague and friend on 
the Commerce Committee, Mr. Stearns, and other members of our committee 
who on a bipartisan basis have contributed to the construction of this 
measure and advancing it to the floor today. I urge approval of the 
bill.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. STEARNS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  I rise in strong support of this bill. As the chairman of the 
Telecommunications Subcommittee has indicated, this has passed twice 
before. We are coming here hoping that the Senate will take it up and 
pass it. It is a very good bill. The gentleman from New York has 
offered this bill.

                              {time}  1200

  The bill is called the Truth in Caller ID Act, and obviously it's 
going to pass overwhelmingly today.
  Millions of Americans use caller ID to secure greater privacy for 
their families. Yet as new technologies continue to be developed, a 
very simple deceptive practice called ``caller ID spoofing'' has simply 
become a growing problem for consumers and also for businesses. Caller 
ID spoofing occurs when a caller masquerades as someone else by 
falsifying the number that appears on the recipient's caller ID 
display. Now, you say, is this difficult? No, it isn't. Caller ID 
spoofing can make a caller appear to come from any phone number the 
caller so desires.
  Unfortunately, under current FCC regulations, there is no requirement 
that all callers transmit accurate caller ID information. In fact, 
there is nothing that prohibits a deceptive manipulation of caller ID. 
This bill will go a long way in stemming the tide of caller ID spoofing 
by making it illegal to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller ID 
information while providing reasonable exemptions for law enforcement 
activities.
  Madam Speaker, the increasing use of Internet telephone services has 
made it easier for people to make any number, any number, appear as a 
caller ID. In addition, several Web sites have sprung up to provide 
caller ID spoofing services, eliminating the need for any special 
hardware. So think of that. Entrepreneurship of these spoofers now has 
sprung to such a point that they can provide it on their Web sites. 
Although these caller ID spoofing services promote themselves for use 
in prank calls or for entertainment purposes only, these services can 
be easily accessed and used by criminals.
  Caller ID spoofing has emerged as a useful tool for identifying 
thieves and other scam artists. In addition, many business functions, 
from credit card verification to automatic call routing, simply depend 
on caller ID for security purposes, which spoofing can render useless. 
So, Madam Speaker, these nefarious actions are the target of this bill.
  As you can see, this is a serious issue with far-reaching 
ramifications and implications for both consumers and for all 
businesses. This is an important bill, and I urge its passage.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. BOUCHER. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
primary author of the legislation, one of our Commerce Committee 
colleagues, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel).
  Mr. ENGEL. I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.
  Mr. Speaker, I stand today in strong support of my legislation, the 
Truth in Caller ID Act. But before I begin, I want to first thank my 
friend and the lead Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, 
Ranking Member Joe Barton. I also want to thank the chairman of the 
Energy and Commerce Committee, Henry Waxman, as well as the staff for 
being so accommodating in getting this bill to the floor today. And I 
want to thank my friend Mr. Boucher, who has helped in bringing this 
bill to the floor, and my friend and classmate Mr. Stearns, who quite 
correctly said this is about as bipartisan a piece of legislation as 
you can get. This legislation has been developed in an extremely 
bipartisan manner, and I want to thank and commend everybody who worked 
on it.
  I introduced this bill, Mr. Speaker, because we needed an immediate 
change in our laws to help prevent identity theft, to crack down on 
fraudulent phone calls, and to protect legitimate uses of caller ID 
technology. I first found out about this just simply by reading an 
article; and when I realized that this is actually something that could 
be done, I was flabbergasted. I went over to Mr. Barton, who at the 
time was the chair of the full committee, and I said, Joe, something 
really needs to be done about this and would you work with me on it? 
And he said he would and he agreed and everybody agrees. And the House 
has passed this bill time and time again, and we hope we can get it 
passed in both Houses and get it signed.
  Last year, the facts are stark, over 6,000 people were victimized by 
credit card fraud and identity theft. Criminals stole over $15 million 
from banks and ruined the credit of thousands of victims. They were 
able to perpetrate this fraud in some instances by using caller ID 
spoofing. This disturbing fact about spoofing is not just that it's 
legal but how easy it is to carry out. Criminals use a tool called a 
``spoof

[[Page H2524]]

card'' to change their outgoing caller ID and even to disguise their 
voices. Now, if you see a caller ID and you see it has a phone number, 
most people think that it's ironclad that that's the actual phone 
number that's calling them when in truth it's not. This technology even 
allows people to disguise their voice in order to trick banks into 
giving them access to their victims' accounts. So a man can do that and 
have his voice change into a woman's voice and vice versa.
  So it's absolutely deceptive, absolutely scary, and dangerous; and 
this tool is available to anyone with access to a Web browser. So it's 
just ridiculous. The technology has gotten so far ahead of us, we need 
to have these kinds of laws to simply catch up.
  Now, no one can dispute that this legislation is necessary. Last 
year, a person in New York called a pregnant woman whom she viewed as 
her romantic rival. Spoofing the phone number of the woman's 
pharmacist, she tricked the woman into taking a drug used to cause an 
abortion. I use it because it's one of the horrible examples; and there 
are many, many more horrible examples of how this is used.
  And just think about it. Someone could be tricked into giving up 
personal medical information. Someone could be tricked to giving up 
banking information. If someone hears that it is their doctor calling 
and they take a look at the number and they see it's their doctor's 
number, they would give out personal information, credit card 
information, even Social Security identification.
  So caller ID fraud has even been used to prank call the constituents 
of a Member of this body with the caller ID readout saying it came from 
that Member's office. Just imagine if people committed this fraud in 
the days leading up to a close election. You can call and you can say 
you are from one candidate's camp when you are really from the other 
candidate's camp. And when someone looks down at the phone number, they 
see it's from candidate A and they think it's legitimate, and it's 
really from candidate B. So imagine what kind of trouble can happen, 
what kind of mischief can be done. So this really, again, needs to be 
curtailed.
  So, as everyone has said, in response to this problem, Mr. Barton and 
I have introduced the Truth in Caller ID Act. Simply, this bill outlaws 
the deceptive use of caller ID spoofing technology if the intention of 
the caller is to deceive and harm the recipient of the call.
  And let me say we developed that intention through hearings we had in 
the Energy and Commerce Committee because we want it to be legitimate. 
There are legitimate times where a number may have to be scrambled. We 
certainly do it here on Capitol Hill to protect Members and others and 
staff from having personal phone numbers being given out or private 
phone numbers being given out. So there is no intent to do that. That 
is why we say it outlaws the deceptive use of caller ID spoofing 
technology if the intention of a caller is to deceive and harm the 
recipient of a call. And, again, through the hearings we have had, we 
have refined this bill; and that's why it has such strong bipartisan 
support.
  Let say this bill does not change the rules for legitimate uses of a 
technology. For example, a domestic abuse shelter will still be able to 
change their number on caller ID to protect the occupants of the 
shelter, and I also gave the example about what we do here in Congress.
  So I am pleased that this bill passed the House in the 109th and 
110th Congresses, and I look forward to its passage again today. I 
strongly urge my colleagues to support the Truth in Caller ID Act and 
outlaw this type of fraud once and for all.
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Let me just comment a little bit further. The gentleman from New York 
mentioned some specific examples. There is another example that is used 
in political campaigns he perhaps knows about where people can use 
spoofing to call different homes in robo phone banking that calls and 
go around the congressional district as a fake and wake people up at 2 
or 3 in the morning and people think this is coming from someone who it 
is not, and this has happened on both sides of the aisle. So this would 
prevent that. So I think it hits a little closer to home when you talk 
about it in those terms.
  The other point that has been a concern is why has this bill not 
passed? I think the question has always been some kind of legal 
questions, whether there is liability involved for the phone company or 
anyone that transmits this information to a consumer or constituent 
through this illegal act of spoofing. And we are able to change that 
language, through bipartisanship, both sides, to try and make it--for 
example, if a phone company, not knowing, and how would they know, 
transmits the information, are they going to be liable for this, to be 
sued? Well, we worked it out that their not knowing, then they should 
not be liable for this. So I think that's important that this bill now 
has language that represents bipartisanship agreement so that the 
passage of this bill should be assured, I think, this time. So this 
should be the third and last time we're doing this. And in the end, I 
think it will be good for Americans to understand that this is an 
illegal activity and we want to stop it.
  Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back 
the balance of my time.
  Mr. BOUCHER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds.
  Mr. Speaker, I simply want to commend my colleagues on the Republican 
side for their bipartisan cooperation in bringing this much-needed 
measure before the House. Our committee performs best when it works in 
a bipartisan mode, and we have done that with regard to this measure. 
We will do it with regard to the measure that will shortly be 
considered.
  I also want to commend the gentleman from New York for his 
persistence in bringing this important measure to the House now for the 
third time. I very much hope, as I know he does, that we will be 
successful in having the measure pass through and signed into law.
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of 
H.R. 1258, the Truth in Caller ID Act, an important bill, and one I 
have taken an interest in as we have worked on it over the last several 
Congresses in the Energy and Commerce Committee.
  Caller ID is a great benefit to millions of Americans by giving them 
more control over their telephones and who and when they talk on the 
phone.
  Like many technological advances, caller ID is a benefit, but bad 
actors can take advantage of it and turn the technology against the 
people it is supposed to help.
  We want certain people to be able to mask caller ID information for 
good purposes, like protecting abused women and children or anonymous 
whistleblowers, but we do not want people to be able to do it for 
deceptive purposes.
  Last Congress, I had some concern that the bill language did not go 
far enough to address an issue that arose in Texas with robocalls that 
were using misleading caller ID information, and I worked with Mr. 
Engel on an amendment to address that.
  Every election year, there are reports of abusive or deceptive 
political robocalls and recently reports claim some of these calls are 
using deceptive caller ID information.
  We don't want to limit anyone's political speech, but why should we 
allow someone to call voters with fake caller ID info claiming they are 
from the local Democratic or Republican Party when they are not?
  We also do not want these automated calls to use innocent businesses' 
caller ID info which causes people to blame innocent businesses instead 
of the real source for the calls.
  I applaud the bill's sponsor for strengthening the language to 
prevent this kind of deception during the Committee process.
  I strongly support this bill, and I urge my colleagues to join me in 
voting for it.
  Mr. BOUCHER. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Boucher) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the bill, H.R. 1258, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
  The title was amended so as to read: ``A bill to amend the 
Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit manipulation of caller ID 
information, and for other purposes.''.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

[[Page H2525]]



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