House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet Chairman John Thune (R-SD), Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Greg Walden (R-OR), Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Chairman Mike Doyle (D-PA), and Ranking Member Bob Latta (R-OH) announced that they have come to an agreement in principle on legislation, the Pallone-Thune TRACED Act, to combat the robocall epidemic:
In May, the Senate passed the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act by a vote of 97-1. In July, the House of Representatives passed the Stopping Bad Robocalls Act by a vote of 429-3. The bills will be merged and reconciled as part of the agreement in principle.
The six leaders said: “Today, we are proud to announce that we have come to an agreement in principle on legislation, the Pallone-Thune TRACED Act, to combat the robocall epidemic that we believe can be signed into law by the President. It’s time to put Americans back in charge of their phones Our agreement will require telephone carriers to verify calls and allow robocalls to be blocked in a consistent and transparent way, all at no extra charge to consumers. The agreement also gives the FCC and law enforcement the ability to quickly go after scammers. We look forward to finalizing the bill text in the coming days.”
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The Regulatory Mix Today: House & Senate Announce Agreement on Anti-Robocall Bill, FCC November Open Meeting Agenda Finalized, FCC To Use Auction For C-Band Licenses
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FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced the final agenda for the FCC’s Open Meeting scheduled for Tuesday, November 19, 2019. It includes the following items:
The FCC will also consider two radio station related items.
In letters to various members of Congress in response to their inquiries concerning the FCC’s rulemaking relating to spectrum in the 3.7-4.2 GHz band (commonly called the C-band), FCC Chairman Pai said that the FCC will use an auction to sell the spectrum. Specifically, the said that: “[a]fter much deliberation and a thorough review of the extensive record, I have concluded that the best way to advance these principles is through an auction of 280 megahertz of the C-band conducted by the federal Communications Commission’s excellent staff. With a quarter-century track record of transparent and successful auctions, I am confident that they will conduct a public auction that will afford all parties a fair opportunity to compete for this 5G spectrum, while preserving the availability of the upper 200 megahertz of this band for the continued delivery of programming.”
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The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’s blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of an Inteserra Briefing.