Washington, D.C. – In response to recent reports that Nevada is second among states hardest hit by robocalls, U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) emphasized her commitment to pushing Congress to further protect Nevadans and crack down on fraudulent telemarketers by acting on her legislation in 2020.
“This past year, I was proud to help lead the Senate toward making important progress ensuring that no consumer is bothered, deceived or scammed by unwanted robocalls. I’m proud to have fought to pass the TRACED Act into law, which will increase penalties for criminal robocallers and proactively protect consumers from receiving unwanted calls. Yet, our work is far from done. Nevadans still received over 560 million robocalls last year, with scammers making up more than 45% of those calls. That’s why I’m also working to pass my DO NOT Call Act to ensure violations to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act are properly and fairly enforced. I’ll also continue to fight to keep the CFPB from carving out an exception for debt collection companies to barrage consumers with texts and emails in addition to robocalls. Consumers in Nevada and across the country deserve the peace of mind that comes with knowing they won’t be taken advantage of by fraudulent telemarketers and indiscriminate robocallers.”
BACKGROUND:
Senator Cortez Masto was a proud cosponsor of the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act which was signed into law by President Trump on December 30, 2019. This bipartisan bill increases penalties for fraudulent telemarketers, gives regulators more time to find scammers, promotes call authentication, and brings relevant federal agencies and state attorneys general together to address impediments to the criminal prosecution of robocallers who intentionally flout laws.
The Senator is also leading her colleagues in taking other legislative action to protect consumers from unwanted robocalls. In June, she introduced the DO NOT Call Act to improve enforcement and enhance penalties for violations made under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). Senator Cortez Masto has also called on Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Kathy Kraninger to reverse a proposed rule that would, for the first time, allow debt collection companies to send unlimited texts and emails to consumers.
###