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Lawmakers Consider Telemarketing Bill, Robo-Calling to Mobile Phones

By Erin Harrison
Executive Editor, Strategic Initiatives

Federal lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow companies to make robo-calls to cell phones, generating debate over mobile devices, consumer rights and business concerns.

Witnesses from business and consumer groups testified at a hearing on “The Mobile Informational Call Act of 2011,” which would update the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, a law that sought to protect telephone customers from intrusive telephone marketing while protecting the needs of businesses and non-profit groups.

In his opening statement at the Nov. 4 hearing, Greg Walden, chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology noted, “It’s been 20 years since Congress passed the TCPA, and the world of telecommunications has changed. …Surely we can figure out a way to allow consumers to receive useful informational calls without unleashing the telemarketers; and I think that’s exactly the needle that this legislation is aiming to thread.”

Among the witnesses who testified was Greg Zoeller, the Attorney General of Indiana, who told the committee he was concerned that the proposed changes “will create obstacles to effective enforcement of state consumer protection laws and go far beyond the stated goal of giving debt collectors a new avenue to contact debtors.”

Zoeller also told the committee that his concerns were shared by at least eight of his attorney general colleagues.

“The state proposes that Congress instead eliminate any suggestion from the TCPA that state statutes regulating interstate telephone and fax harassment are preempted,” Zoeller testified, taking issue with the wording of the bill, stating that no state laws are preempted by the TCPA, even as applied to interstate calls.

Other witnesses included: Michael Altschul (News - Alert), senior vice president and general counsel, CTIA; Faith Schwartz, executive director of HOPE NOW; Stephen A. Alterman, president, Cargo Airline Association; and Delicia Reynolds Hand, legislative director, National Association of Consumer Advocates.