Senators Attempting To Remove Robocall Loophole

New submitter bearded_yak writes: Last week, it was reported here that a loophole for debt collection robocalls had found its way into the budget bill. In the end, the loophole survived. Now, several senators want to remove it with Senator Ed Markey's "Help Americans Never Get Unwanted Phone calls" (HANGUP) Act. Meanwhile, according to an article at Consumerist, "the Federal Communications Commission has nine months to craft rules dictating the conditions under which the government would be allowed to make these robocalls", so perhaps this loophole will meet its end before that time.

Comments

Better Journalism

[fulldecent]

Investigating "a loophole for debt collection robocalls had found its way into the budget bill":

I can narrow this down to having been introduced by the House. Commit 2015-10-28 pushed by House shows:

https://www.govtrack.us/congre...

Previous 2015-05-22 revision committed by Senate

https://www.govtrack.us/congre...

Diff places blame on house.

Perhaps an improvement would be

"The United States House of Representatives added a loophole for debt collection robocalls into the budget bill":

This is the limit of my journalism abilities here, but just hoping to make some improvement.

I would glad pay money for Slashdot if somehow the journalism could be improved.

Re:Democrats asked for this loophole first

[Anonymous Coward]

This loophole has come from the White House for at least 3 years:

I quote from page 168:

Improve Treasury Debt Collection. -- ”The Budget includes two proposals that would increase collections of delinquent debt:

Provide authority to contact delinquent debtors via their cell phones.—The Budget proposes to clarify that the use of automatic dialing systems and prerecorded voice messages is allowed when contacting wireless phones in the collection of debt owed to or granted by the United States. In this time of fiscal constraint, the Administration believes that the Federal Government should ensure that all debt owed to the United States is collected as quickly and efficiently as possible and this provision could result in millions of defaulted debt being collected. While protections against abuse and harassment are appropriate, changing technology should not absolve these citizens from paying back the debt they owe their fellow citizens. The proposal would also allow the Federal Communications Commission to implement rules to protect consumers from being harassed and contacted unreasonably. This proposal would result in PAYGO savings of $120 million over 10 years.

A measly $12 million a year. Congress spends more than that on toothpicks. The pay-per-minute cell phone plan users would see more than $120 million in extra cell phone minutes.

Each subsequent year (2013, 2014, and 2015) budget from the White House has the same loophole. Google:

"Fiscal Year 2015 Analytical Perspectives: Budget of the U.S. Government" and go to page 123.