1
STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER ROBERT M. McDOWELL
RE: In the Matter of Rules and Regulations Implementing the 
Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, Notice of 
Proposed Rulemaking, CG Docket No. 02-278
I commend the Chairman and his staff for their work on updating the 
Federal Communications Commission’s rules on robocalls.  I also thank the 
Chairman for reinstating the practice of including actual text of the proposed rules 
in the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM).  As I have stated many times before, 
the American public and Congress could greatly benefit from such transparency. 
In short, this notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) updates and 
harmonizes our rules with the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) counterpart 
rules and, in effect, would reduce consumer confusion for those who wonder why 
they are receiving unsolicited robocalls from some entities but not from others.  
Over the years, consumers have complained about unsolicited telemarketing 
calls - especially robocalls - interrupting their lives, especially around dinnertime 
and other important moments in their lives.  There are two areas where this NPRM 
proposes to empower consumers to control what calls they receive.  First, a 
consumer would only receive such calls if prior express written consent has been 
given by the consumer to the telemarketer.  For convenience sake, such consent 
could be given electronically.  Second, robocalls would have to include an automated 
message that allows a consumer to “opt out” of receiving future calls.  The proposal 
requires this message to be interactive so the consumer can elect to use the “opt out” 
feature immediately.   This NPRM raises important questions regarding matters 
such as established business relationships, and I look forward to reviewing the 
record as we move forward.  
Finally, I note that these rules apply only to commercial calls and do not 
apply to political calls, non-profit calls and, most importantly, emergency calls – all 
which are held to higher standards of protection.  On that topic, I thank the staff for 
working with my office to ensure that the exemption for emergency calls includes 
calls that are permitted under the Warning, Alert, and Response Network Act
(WARN Act)WARN Act and the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS).