Congress Rushes to Keep Do-Not-Call Legislation
WASHINGTON – New Hampshire residents can look forward to a likely drop in annoying telemarketing phone calls starting Oct. 1, as Congress speed-dialed its way through a bill Thursday to enforce a federal do-not-call registry.
Both the House and Senate moved swiftly just one day after a federal judge in Oklahoma City released a ruling that Congress had not authorized the Federal Trade Commission to institute the national registry.
The House acted first, as Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) introduced a bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Charlie Bass (R-N.H.), to clearly empower the FTC to execute the do-not-call registry. The House approved the bill, 412-8, on Thursday morning, and the Senate approved the bill, 95-0 later in the day.
Congress moved far more quickly than usual, said Rep. Jeb Bradley (R-N.H.), who has been in the House eight months.
“I don’t agree with the judge’s assessment,” he said Thursday. Bradley said he thought a bill Congress passed in February authorizing the FTC to draft rules to curb telemarketing empowered the commission to establish the do-not-call list. U.S. District Judge Lee R. West ruled the FTC did not have that authority.
“We’re correcting that right now, if in fact there was even a problem,” Bradley said.
Bass said he fully expects President Bush to sign the law quickly.
“Twenty-four hours ago, we found out about the problem, and today we’re attempting to solve it,” Bass said in an interview Thursday. “So there’s no reason to believe [the bill] couldn’t be signed into law sometime before next week.”
Bass said that after West released his ruling Wednesday, his congressional office was deluged with calls from constituents who supported creation of the do-not-call list. This doesn’t usually happen, even with more critical issues, he said.
“This is not an issue like Iraq or the economy or the kinds of issues that Congress considers ‘big’ issues,” he said. “It is irritating to many people.”
The numbers prove it.
More than 50 million Americans have registered their phone numbers on the do-not-call list since June. Telemarketers who call those numbers could be fined up to $11,000.
The FTC reported that 274,893 New Hampshire phone numbers were registered on the do-not-call list as of Sept. 16. The 2002 census estimated the state’s population at approximately 1,275,000.
New Hampshire is one of 24 states, according to the FTC, that did not have its own do-not-call list in place. So the national list has added significance for residents, Bradley said.
Calling the federal court’s ruling a “technicality,” Bradley said the list’s numbers indicate strong national support by Americans who deserve the right to avoid telemarketing calls.
“People should not be denied because of a technicality the ability to voluntarily restrict calls that are coming in at dinnertime or maybe at bedtime, who knows?” he said Thursday. “I think it’s something that’s long overdue.”
