President Trump has signed bipartisan legislation to combat robocalls into law. The Pallone-Thune TRACED ACT was announced as part of a bipartisan, bicameral agreement by the House and Senate last month. This month, the House of Representatives passed the bill by a vote of 417-3. It later passed the Senate by voice vote.

This year, New Jerseyans have received an estimated 200 million robocalls in the 732 area code alone and over a billion statewide. In November, a whopping 5.6 billion robocalls were made nationwide, according to Robokiller.

“I’m delighted the President signed this overwhelmingly bipartisan bill into law. It will bring much-needed relief to New Jerseyans who have put up with these relentless and illegal calls for far too long,” Congressman Pallone said. “This legislation will put Americans back in control of their phones. These calls are not just annoying – they also are scams targeted at consumers. I thank my colleagues in Congress who helped get this important legislation signed into law.”

The Pallone-Thune TRACED Act:

• Requires carriers to offer call-authentication technology to everyone at no additional charge;
• Requires opt-in or opt-out robocall blocking be offered at no additional charge to consumers;
• Gives the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) the ability to step up enforcement actions against unlawful robocalls with a longer statute of limitations and increased fines in certain cases;
• Pushes the Department of Justice to bring more criminal prosecutions against criminal robocallers;
• Requires the FCC to work to stop one-ring scams;
• Helps the FCC and responsible carriers traceback and cutoff suspect phone companies that are responsible for sending vast numbers of unlawful robocalls; and
• Protects patients, doctors and hospitals from unlawful robocalls.