Foreign Robocall Elimination Act

Key Points

• The bill creates a new taskforce with government and industry experts to study and combat illegal robocalls coming into the U.S. from other countries.
• The taskforce must report to Congress on which foreign countries send the most scam calls, how much money and identity theft results, and how to encourage other countries to adopt call authentication technology.
• Groups that trace back the origin of suspected illegal robocalls get legal immunity for sharing that information, making it easier for them to publicly identify problem phone companies.
• The FCC can publish a list of voice service providers that refuse to cooperate with tracing efforts or that are found to carry large volumes of illegal robocalls, and can take enforcement action based on that list.
• New or unproven phone service providers may have to post a bond of up to $100,000 before they can be listed as compliant, though established and regulated providers can be exempted.
• An existing FCC reporting requirement on robocall traceback compliance is scaled back from an annual report to one required only once every three years.