Congressman Cohen Votes to Stop Abusive Robocalls

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today applauded House passage of H.R. 3375, the Stopping Bad Robocalls Act, to stop abusive robocall practices. The vote was 429 to 3.

The bill directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to enact strong consumer protections and empowers the FCC with tools to reign in robocalls. The bill also ensures that consumers have the ability to stop calls they have previously authorized and requires incoming calls to have authentic caller identification information before being delivered to customers.

Congressman Cohen spoke on the House floor in support of the measure. See those remarks here. He later released this statement:

"Everyone is fed up with robocalls. I seldom answer my land line when I'm home because it's invariably a robocall. These calls are annoying, disruptive, and could be harmful. The Stopping Bad Robocalls Act will help protect consumers with innovative tools to stop these abusive practices and restrict unauthorized robocalls."

According to The Washington Post, Americans received 26.3 billion unwanted robocalls last year, up 46 percent from the previous year.