House Rescues National Do-Not-Call at Last Minute
WASHINGTON – Two days after a federal judge killed a national do-not-call list that would shield more than a quarter million New Hampshire residents from pesky telemarketers, Congress rushed into action Thursday with legislation to activate the popular list.
With overwhelming bipartisan support and uncharacteristic speed, the House passed a bill that would make an end-run around Tuesday’s federal district court ruling and allow the Federal Trade Commission to launch the list next week as planned. Millions of Americans have put their phone numbers on the list intended to block unwanted telemarketing calls. The Senate approved the bill later Thursday, 95-0.
“Twenty-four hours ago we found out about the problem, and today we’re attempting to solve it,” said U.S. Congressman Charlie Bass, R-NH, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Bass co-sponsored both the bill that the House passed, 412-8, Thursday and the one the court said did not accomplish what Bass and others said it did.
U.S. District Court Judge Lee R. West ruled that a law enacted early this year did not grant the Federal Trade Commission power to operate a do-not-call list. He said Congress years ago had granted such authority to the Federal Communications Commission, which chose not to create a list.
West’s decision, released Wednesday, at least temporarily freed telemarketers to call the 50 million phone numbers registered on the list since June. The law was scheduled to take effect Oct. 1, with telemarketers facing fines as high as $11,000 for each call to a listed number.
The FTC reported that 274, 893 New Hampshire phone numbers were registered to the list as of Sept. 16.
U.S. Congressman Jeb Bradley, R-NH, said the national do-not-call list has added significance in New Hampshire because the Granite State is one of 24 without a state registry.
“People should not be denied because of a technicality the ability to voluntarily restrict calls that are coming in at dinner time or maybe bedtime,” Bradley said. “I believe the bill we voted for in February gave [the FTC] authority. We’re correcting that right now — if in fact there was even a problem.”
New Hampshire officials had planned to adopt the federal list, compiled by the FTC, for use in its own, new do-not-call registry. The court decision left unclear whether that would be possible.
“The fly in the ointment remains: what is the status of the actual list,” said Kristin Spath, head of the Consumer Protection Bureau in the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office.
The FTC announced Wednesday it would appeal the court’s decision, but lawmakers said they hoped President Bush would quickly sign a new law allowing the list to launch on time next week.
Bass said he was confident the court ruling would be overturned, but added that the legislation passed Thursday “essentially would negate the need for completing the appeal.” He said his Concord office was flooded with calls from angry residents after the court’s decision was made public.
House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Billy Tauzin, R-La., introduced the new bill late Wednesday and shepherded it through the House with a touch of humor. Fighting back laughter during a brief, mostly one-sided debate, Tauzin said, “We should call it the ‘This time we really mean it’ bill.”
Some observers were stunned by the speed with which Congress reacted on the issue.
“I’ve never seen the house move so quickly on anything like this,” said Jeff Kramer, a lobbyist with the AARP, the powerful senior citizens’ lobby and one of the registry’s fiercest advocates.
An FTC spokeswoman declined to comment on the legislation Thursday. Officials from the Direct Marketing Association, which represented telemarketers in the federal suit, did not return calls for comment.
