Anti-Spoofing Act of 2014

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3670) to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to expand and clarify the prohibition on provision of inaccurate caller identification information, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous materials in the Record on the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Lance).

Mr. Speaker, I am the only other speaker left on my side, and I reserve the right to close. So I would yield to the gentleman from Utah or the gentlelady from New York if they wish to speak.

Mr. Speaker, the Congress is not spoofing when we say we are going to do something about those individuals that do try to spoof the American public.

As has been pointed out, we passed a law back in, actually, it was the 2009 act, but we passed it in 2010, the Truth in Caller ID Act, to mitigate the effects of caller spoofing.

As you well know, you look on your caller ID and you see that an innocent or innocuous individual or company is calling you, as has been pointed out. It could be the police department, could

be the Pizza Hut, could be almost anything, so you take the call and that is not what it is. In many cases they are trying to defraud our elderly in some scam or something like this. So we passed a law that we thought would handle it. But it needs to be updated, and that is what this bill does.

As has been pointed out, it makes it illegal to initiate these calls from outside the United States. It makes it illegal to do it over the Internet with a Voice Over Internet Protocol-based system. And it also broadens the jurisdiction to include text messaging.

As we well know, Mr. Speaker, text messaging is ubiquitous now on our Blackberrys and our iPads and iPhones and all of our personal telecommunication devices.

This bill has bipartisan support. The subcommittee chairman, Mr. Walden, is an original cosponsor. The subcommittee ranking member, Ms. Eshoo of California, is a cosponsor. Chairman Emeritus on the Democratic side John Dingell is a cosponsor. I am an original sponsor.

So this is one of these instances, Mr. Speaker, that Republicans and Democrats are united. Chairman Upton, the full committee chairman, and Mr. Waxman, the full committee ranking member, are totally supportive.

There is every indication that, if this body passes this bill this evening, it will go to the other body, the United States Senate, and we fully expect it to pass it. This is one of those rare birds in this Congress that might actually be signed by the President of the United States.

There is no known opposition to the bill. Our stakeholders, as Mr. Matheson has pointed out, support it. Google supports it. The FCC supports it. AT&T, CTIA, Microsoft, USTelecom, Vonage, Verizon, and AARP are just some of the more popularly known stakeholders that support the bill.

So I rise in strong support, Mr. Speaker, that we unanimously pass H.R. 3670, the Anti-Spoofing Act of 2013, and send it to the Senate for its consideration.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3670, the Anti-Spoofing Act, which I authored along with Congressman Barton and Congressman Lance.

The bill addresses the problem of caller ID spoofing, which is the scrambling of caller identification numbers. It is a tool often used to defraud unwitting recipients of phone calls and text messages.

It is often stated that a measure of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable. Almost every day, I receive new reports of caller ID spoofing that harms the most vulnerable in our society. Immigrants, seniors, veterans, and those in need of help from law enforcement are all primary victims here. That is why this bill is endorsed by senior citizen groups, law enforcement groups, and consumer protection groups.

Shortly after entering Congress, I pursued this issue because of complaints from a local civic organization and seniors in my district. But I quickly realized it is affecting Americans in all corners of our country, in all of our districts.

I think the fact that this is plaguing so many of our communities is a big reason why we have so much bipartisan support here for this bill.

H.R. 3670 is an update to the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009. That legislation first criminalized malicious caller ID spoofing. But since the passage of that law, scammers have used legal loopholes and new technologies to circumvent it, thus, malicious caller ID spoofing is on the rapid rise again.

So it is time to strengthen and tighten existing law and shut down the routes by which it is being circumvented, and that is what our bill does. H.R. 3670 sets forth three important changes to current law.

Number one, the bill broadens current law to prohibit caller ID spoofing from foreigners. This is crucial because U.S.-based companies now spoof calls to U.S. residents with intent to do harm, but originate such calls from outside of the United States.

Number two, the bill broadens current law to include new Internet- based Voice Over IP services that enable callers to make outgoing only calls from computers and tablets to mobile and landline phones. This is a technology that was undeveloped in 2009 when the Truth in Caller ID Act was adopted and, therefore, unaccounted for in the law. But it has now grown and has contributed significantly to the caller ID spoofing problem.

Number three, finally, our bill broadens current law to include text messaging.

In closing, I would like to thank Mr. Barton and Mr. Lance for working with me to write this bill, Chairmen Upton and Walden and Ranking Members Waxman and Eshoo for all their guidance and leadership, the Communications and Technology Subcommittee members, most of whom gave this bill great time and support, and all the other cosponsors.

I would also like to thank the committee and personal staffs for all of their hard work.

I urge a ``yes'' vote for H.R. 3670.

Mr. Speaker, my thanks to Chairman Emeritus Barton for his leadership on this issue.

Caller ID spoofing is growing at an alarming rate in this country. This new technology allows criminals to falsify deliberately the telephone number and the name relayed on caller ID information to make it appear as though those criminals are calling from our bank or our credit card company, or even from a governmental agency.

Imagine that. I get a telephone call on my cell telephone, and under caller ID, I think it comes from my bank or my credit card company, or even worse, I suppose, from a local governmental agency.

A recent case in New Jersey resulted in a resident's reportedly being scammed out of more than $5,500 by a caller, a criminal, falsely claiming to be a Federal tax agent attempting to collect back taxes.

What a frightening experience for the innocent receiver of that telephone call. According to investigators, the victim's caller ID showed the number of the local police department. This has got to stop.

Today's bipartisan legislation will strengthen and improve the Truth in Caller ID law to help protect consumers in a greater way from scammers, spammers, and unscrupulous telemarketers.

I commend Chairman Emeritus Barton, of Ennis, Texas, Republican, and Congresswoman Grace Meng, Democrat, of Queens, New York, for their hard work and leadership on this issue.

I want the American people to know that on the Energy and Commerce Committee, where Chairman Barton and I serve, more bipartisan legislation is passed out of that committee and reaches the floor of the House, and then goes over to the United States Senate and is passed in the United States Senate and goes to the President of the United States for his signature, than legislation from any other committee of Congress.

Now, much of what we do on the Energy and Commerce Committee does not make the headlines because much of what we do is eminently bipartisan in nature. And that is the history of the committee, the oldest standing committee in the House of Representatives, having first been established in 1795.

That is the tradition of bipartisanship, when the chairman, Mr. Barton was the chairman of that committee. It continues under the chairmanship of Mr. Upton of Michigan, and this includes the ranking member, Mr. Waxman, and the ranking member of the subcommittee. On both sides of the aisle we have a tradition on Energy and Commerce to make sure that our legislation is bipartisan in nature.

I came to this issue as the result of the nefarious situation in New Jersey. I also came to this issue at the request of Congresswoman Meng of New York City, and I want to thank the Congresswoman for coming to me.

I certainly believe that this legislation is in the interest of the American people. I urge all of my colleagues to vote for this consumer protection legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

I rise today in support of H.R. 3670, the Anti-Spoofing Act. This is a bipartisan, pro-consumer bill that addresses the increasing problem of scam artists faking caller ID information to defraud consumers.

These bad actors scramble or spoof caller identification information for the purpose of impersonating legitimate individuals or institutions such as law enforcement officials or a bank. They then use these fraudulent identities to obtain sensitive personal information from unsuspecting consumers.

Vulnerable populations such as seniors, veterans, and recent immigrants have been especially targeted by these attacks.

The bill makes three important changes to strengthen existing law and protect consumers. First, it broadens current law to address spoofing in the context of international calls.

Second, it changes the definition of Internet Protocol-enabled voice services to cover new forms of technology criminals have employed making Internet-based calls.

Finally, the bill broadens the scope of the existing law to cover text message spoofing.

These changes will make the 2009 enacted Truth in Caller ID Act a more effective tool to combat caller ID spoofing and protect consumers.

Before reserving my time, I do want to commend Congresswoman Meng for her work on this issue. I want to commend Mr. Lance, and I want to also congratulate Congressman Barton for working together on this commonsense bill.

Not only does the legislation enjoy bipartisan support in the House, but the sponsors have also worked very closely with Federal agencies and industry stakeholders and consumer groups to develop true consensus around this proposed legislation. This is the way this institution ought to work.

I urge my colleagues to join me and support H.R. 3670, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have one more speaker, and I yield as much time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Meng).

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 3670, the Anti-Spoofing Act and H.R. 5161, the E-LABEL Act.

H.R. 3670 updates the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009 to combat against fraudulent phone calls and text messages received by millions of Americans, including seniors, veterans and the disabled. According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), ``caller ID spoofing'' is defined as the deliberate falsification of caller ID information, including a telephone number and/or name for the purpose of disguising the identity of the calling party.

Just last month, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department reported a series of spoofing incidents in which San Diegans received calls purported to be from the Sheriff's office, indicating a warrant for their arrest. With similar reports of fraudulent behavior around the country, this bipartisan, pro-consumer bill will better protect Americans from becoming victims of scammers. I commend Representative Meng for her leadership and I urge the House to pass this commonsense bill.

I also urge House colleagues to support H.R. 5161, a bipartisan bill which I introduced with Representatives Latta, Welch and Blackburn in July. Following on the E-Labeling guidance issued by the FCC this summer, H.R. 5161 would promote electronic labeling for FCC certified devices such as phones, computers, smart watches and other consumer electronics products.

As the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) described in a July op-ed, ``etching 17 characters into a phone might not seem like a Herculean feat, but as wireless devices have proliferated and shrunk in size, many manufacturers have been forced to buy increasingly expensive equipment and invest more design time into placing the label.'' Electronic labeling thus provides manufacturers with a more practical solution to existing FCC labeling requirements and does so while lowering device costs.

I urge my colleagues to join me in voting for H.R. 3670 and H.R. 5161.