STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER MEREDITH A. BAKER Re: Rules and Regulations Implementing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, CG Docket No. 02-278 I am pleased to support this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking today. It takes an important step toward policy changes that will give consumers greater control over the prerecorded telemarketing calls they receive—calls that many consumers find annoying and intrusive. At the same time, the proposed rules would include important exemptions, including for calls initiated for emergency purposes and health care-related calls subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. I also think it is good to harmonize rules across the federal government where the statute allows and it makes good policy sense, as we propose to do here with the telemarketing rules of the Federal Trade Commission. I do have some questions about the proposal related to established business relationships and I look forward to reviewing the record on that issue in particular. Thanks to the Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau for all of your hard work on this item.