STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER JESSICA ROSENWORCEL
APPROVING IN PART, DISSENTING IN PART
Re: Advanced Methods to Target and Eliminate Robocalls, CG Docket No. 17-59, Report and 
Order (November 16, 2017)
Picture this: A family sits down to dinner.  Two parents, two kids, two jobs, and too little 
time in the day.  This time around the table is special. It’s sacred.  It’s a reprieve from the 
unrelenting chaos and hubbub of everyday life.  I know it well because this is true for my 
family—and so many others.
But night after night our family bliss is interrupted—by Rachel from cardmember 
services, by someone claiming to be from the IRS, or by some distant voice offering me a cruise 
or vacation or subscription or something else I do not want, did not ask for, and do not need.
I don’t think my family is all that unusual.  I think our experience is unbelievably 
common.  In fact, this agency has the numbers to prove it.  Year in and year out, robocalls are the 
largest single category of consumer complaints at the FCC.  By one count, there were 2.5 billion 
robocalls in the United States last month.  That means more than 4,700 robocalls have been made 
since I started talking a minute ago.  That’s insane.  
So it’s a good thing that this agency is taking action and making the cessation of these 
vexing calls a priority.  That’s why I support today’s action to allow carriers to block calls from 
invalid, unallocated, and unassigned numbers and permit carriers to block calls when the 
subscriber to a particular number asks for that number to be blocked in order to prevent spoofing.  
Maybe it will help prevent robocalls.  I certainly hope so.  
But let’s be honest: This is tepid stuff.  We need to bring the heat.  My blood boils when 
robocalls come in night after night after night and these strange voices and their scams hold up 
my line and invade my home.  That’s why the FCC needs to do more—a lot more—than the 
small-bore stuff we do today.  
Moreover, I think even what we do here has a real flaw.  While the agency offers carriers
the ability to limit calls from what are likely to be fraudulent actors, it fails to prevent them from 
charging consumers for this service.  So this is the kicker: the FCC takes action to ostensibly 
reduce robocalls but then makes sure you can pay for the privilege.  If you ask me, that’s 
ridiculous.  Come on.  It’s an insult to consumers who are fed up with these nuisance calls.  So 
on this aspect of today’s decision I choose to dissent.