{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.jones.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senator-doug-jones-bill-to-crack-down-on-robocalls-passes-congress-set-to-become-law", "Senator Doug Jones\u2019 Bill to Crack Down on Robocalls Passes Congress, Set to Become Law", "2019-12-19", "2019", "2019-12", "Democrat", "House", "AL", "Doug Jones", "J000300", "www.jones.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON Today\r\nthe Senate passed broad, bipartisan legislation co-sponsored by Senator Doug\r\nJones (D-Ala.) to decrease and deter robocalls. The Telephone\r\nRobocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act was\r\npassed by the House of Representatives earlier this month. The bill now heads\r\nto the President to be signed into law. Most\r\npeople in this day and age know what it's like to have their phone go off all\r\nday long because of annoying robocalls. These calls aren't just an everyday\r\nnuisance -- they can also perpetrate scams and often prey on the elderly. Even\r\nin the divisive times we have today, we can all agree that these incessant\r\nrobocalls need to end, and I'm glad Congress was able to come to a bipartisan\r\ncompromise to crack down on them, Senator Jones, a member of the Senate\r\nSpecial Committee on Aging, where he has worked to raise awareness of scams\r\ntargeting the elderly and passed bipartisan legislation to protect\r\ntaxpayers from being targets of tax-return fraud. The\r\nTRACED Act gives regulators more time to find scammers and levy\r\nfines for those who are caught, promotes call authentication and blocking\r\nadoption, and brings relevant federal agencies and state attorneys general\r\ntogether to address impediments to criminal prosecution of robocallers who\r\nintentionally flout laws. The\r\nTRACED Act would: \r\n Requires service providers to\r\n     implement call authentication and blocking technologies free of charge for\r\n     consumers and small businesses;\r\n  \r\n Gives the Federal\r\n     Communications Commission (FCC) the ability to step up enforcement actions\r\n     against unlawful robocalls with a longer statute of limitations and\r\n     increased fines in certain cases;\r\n  \r\n Brings together relevant\r\n     federal agencies as well as state attorneys general and other non-federal\r\n     entities to identify and report to Congress on improving deterrence and\r\n     criminal prosecution of robocall scams at the federal and state levels;\r\n  \r\n Requires the FCC to establish\r\n     partnerships to better inform efforts to protect consumers, including an\r\n     advisory committee to develop best practices to combat unlawful robocalls\r\n     made to hospitals and a consortium to trace the origins of illegal\r\n     robocalls;\r\n  \r\n Directs the FCC to protect\r\n     consumers from one-ring scams, in which callers ring once and then hang\r\n     up, attempting to trick the consumer into calling back and incurring hefty\r\n     charges; and\r\n  \r\n Requires the FCC to report to\r\n     Congress on enforcement and compliance progress.\r\n  ###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.jones.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senator-doug-jones-bill-to-crack-down-on-robocalls-passes-congress-set-to-become-law"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.070976886898279, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}