Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III applauds the passage of new federal legislation known as the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act.
The TRACED Act is the first federal law designed to combat the rampant problem of robocalls, which increased by more than 36 percent in 2018. The law will prioritize industry-wide implementation of call authentication protocols (SHAKEN/STIR), a framework which will allow voice providers to adopt call-blocking technology and prevent spoofed calls at no additional cost to consumers. It also creates an interagency working group to take additional actions to reduce robocalls and hold telemarketers and robocallers accountable.
“States lead enforcement of the federal do-not-call laws and have supported this legislation from the start,” said General Slatery. “By updating laws and regulations, increasing transparency, and putting some teeth in the penalties for making illegal calls, the TRACED Act enables this Office to do more to protect Tennessee consumers from being harassed and scammed.”
The law also requires the FCC to put new limits on robocalls that are legal, placing new limits on the types of organizations that can make those calls and who can receive them. A coalition of 54 attorneys general formally supported the TRACED Act in a letter to Congress in March 2019: https://www.tn.gov/attorneygeneral/news/2019/3/5/pr19-07.html
The TRACED Act was signed into law by President Donald J. Trump Monday. It passed both the House and Senate with nearly unanimous bipartisan support. The House version of the bill was introduced and sponsored by Tennessee Representative David Kustoff and co-sponsored by Tennessee Representatives Tim Burchett, Chuck Fleischmann, David Roe, and John Rose. Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn co-sponsored the bill in the Senate.