[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 182 (Thursday, November 14, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H8830]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               TRACED ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Budd) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BUDD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss an issue that has 
afflicted nearly every American, including me, and it is the influx of 
annoying and deceptive robocalls. These seemingly endless automated 
calls disrupt every part of our daily lives, constitute a serious form 
of harassment, and expose millions of Americans to dangerous financial 
scams.
  A prime example of the insidious nature of these calls occurred last 
year in New York when scammers pretended to be from the Chinese 
consulate and demanded money from people with what they considered to 
be Chinese-sounding last names. As a result, 21 Chinese immigrants lost 
a total of $2.5 million.
  In another instance, scammers attempted to phish personal information 
by calling people and threatening them with fines unless they signed up 
for health insurance.
  These incidences are financially devastating and are happening to far 
too many people across our country. If there is one thing Republicans 
and Democrats should be able to agree on is that Congress can no longer 
sit back and ignore this problem. Our efforts must be focused on adding 
teeth to the Federal Government's ability to detect and punish 
individuals and organizations that abuse automated dialing technology.
  With that in mind, I am proud to be a cosponsor of the TRACED Act, 
introduced by my friend,   David Kustoff. This legislation expands the 
penalties and the timeframes under which the Federal Communications 
Commission can identify robocallers and pursue civil action. This is 
entirely bipartisan, and it passed the Senate, last May, 97-1.
  Under the TRACED Act, the FCC will be able to impose fines of up to 
$10,000 for each individual scam call. Currently, telemarketing 
scammers face a maximum fine of only $1,500. I am confident that 
increasing the maximum penalty up to $10,000 will deter many scammers 
by making the cost of getting caught simply too expensive.
  To make these harsher penalties the norm and not the exception, the 
FCC needs to be given more time to find the perpetrators of illegal 
robocalls. If the TRACED Act becomes law, the period in which the 
source of a robocall can be investigated and found liable will be 
tripled from 1 year to 3 years.
  This important provision will work in lockstep with the increased 
fines. The FCC has told Congress that extending the statute of 
limitations in this way would improve the Commission's enforcement 
efforts.
  During my time in office, I have heard frustration from countless 
constituents on this issue. Robocalls frequently interrupt our daily 
lives, ringing our phones during important work-hours, and distracting 
us from time spent at home with our families.
  The TRACED Act is an important bipartisan bill that is supported by 
attorneys general in all 50 States, along with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.
  As scammers adjust the way they perpetrate fraud on the American 
people, it seems like common sense that our laws should be updated to 
fight back. No matter which side of the aisle we find ourselves on, we 
should all be able to agree that it is time for these illegal robocalls 
to be stopped once and for all.

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