FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 
WASHINGTON 
O F F ICE OF 
THE CHAIRMAN 
The Honorable Sherrod Brown 
United States Senate 
713 Hart Senate Office Building 
Washington, D.C. 20510 
Dear Senator Brown: 
April 5, 2016 
Thank you for your letter expressing concern about Section 301 of the Bipartisan Budget 
Act of2015, which amends the codified Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). Your 
important views will be included in the record of the related proceeding and considered as part of 
the FCC's review. 
I share your interest in maintaining strong consumer protections against unwanted calls 
while remaining faithful to Congress's mandate. Section 3 01 creates an exception to the TCP A's 
prior express consent requirement for automated calls to cellular or residential telephones, if such 
calls are solely for the purpose of collecting debts owed to or guaranteed by the United States 
government. That provision also requires the Commission to issue implementing regulations 
within nine months of enactment of the Bipartisan Budget Act, giving the Commission until 
August 2nct of this year to adopt new rules. 
You have raised several issues for consideration by the Commission, including: whether 
callers should be required to stop calling as soon as any called party makes such a request; 
whether covered calls should be allowed only to the debtor and not others; whether limits should 
be placed on calls made by servicers of government debt; what limits should be placed on calls 
concerning debt no longer owed by the federal government; whether there should be limits on 
the number and duration of automated calls made without consent, an issue raised specifically by 
Section 301; and what limits should be placed on covered calls to telephone numbers reassigned 
from a debtor to another person. 
I fully agree that these are key issues for the Commission to consider in this context. Last 
month, I circulated a draft Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that seeks comment on these 
and other issues and presents proposals that are consistent with Section 301 while shielding 
consumers from unwanted robocalls. 
The draft NPRM seeks comment on clear, pro-consumer restrictions on the type and 
number of calls a federal creditor may place to recover a debt, even when those calls go 
unanswered. The draft NPRM also makes clear that the new rules will not open a door for 
telemarking calls. The Commission remains steadfast in its defense of protections against 
unwanted calls. Congress specified that exempted calls must be "solely" to collect a federal 
debt, and we will ensure they do not go beyond that boundary. 
Page 2-The Honorable Sherrod Brown 
I also note that you urge us to work closely with the Consumer Financial Protection 
Bureau (CFPB) to coordinate the two agencies ' approaches to limits on the number of 
permissible debt collection calls. Commission staff worked closely with the CFPB staff in 
drafting the NPRM and developing the aforementioned proposals and also consulted with the 
Department of Treasury, Department of Education, and other federal stakeholders. We will also, 
as you have suggested, coordinate with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to ensure that we 
maintain the TCPA' s consumer protections as the IRS implements new collection methods. 
I appreciate your interest in this matter. Please let me know if I can be of any further 
assistance. 
il#~t 
Tom Wheeler