Federal Communications Commission	FCC 21-62


STATEMENT OF
ACTING CHAIRWOMAN JESSICA ROSENWORCEL

Re: 	Promoting Caller ID Authentication to Combat Illegal Robocalls, WC Docket No. 17-97, 		Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (May 20, 2021).

It’s a fact that during the last several years the number of robocalls skyrocketed.  
It’s also a fact that we need to do more to stop these annoying and abusive calls.  
The good news is that today’s rulemaking seeks to do just that.  It speeds the way for the deployment of caller authentication systems known as STIR/SHAKEN.  When STIR/SHAKEN is in place, carriers can verify that callers are who they say they are.  That helps stop spoofing and the scams it can foster.
	It’s why the Federal Communications Commission has required carriers to implement STIR/SHAKEN in the IP portions of their networks by June 30, 2021.  However, smaller carriers with fewer than 100,000 subscribers were given additional time to implement STIR/SHAKEN.  That makes sense for honest providers who have fewer resources to come into compliance.  But we recently discovered that some of these smaller companies are pumping large volumes of traffic onto our networks and a lot of it looks suspiciously like robocalls.  It’s time to change course.  So here we propose to cut back on the extension for smaller providers that are sending these junk calls. 
	Implementing STIR/SHAKEN—and doing it faster as we propose here—will help reduce robocalls over time.  But we need to do a whole lot more.    
	That’s why we just issued a $225 million fine—the largest in the agency’s history—to Texas telemarketers for illegally spoofing more than one billion robocalls.  
That’s why we have sent three sets of cease-and-desist letters to ten different providers that appear to be facilitating illegal robocalls.  These letters are a final warning, because if they don’t act within 48 hours we authorize all other providers to block their traffic.  
	That’s why we mandated that all carriers register themselves in a robocall mitigation database and tell us what they are doing to stop illegal robocalls.  And failure to register has consequences—we will tell all other providers to block their traffic.
	That’s why we’ve set up a Robocall Response Team here at the FCC, with over 50 attorneys, economists, engineers, and analysts from four bureaus and two offices.  This team is reviewing our rules, policies, and practices to identify and close gaps that allow illegal robocalls to continue.  
That’s why we’ve written to all major carriers to survey free robocall blocking tools they make available to consumers.  We’ve written developers, too.  What we learn in response will inform a robocall blocking report that we will issue this summer.
That’s why we’ve set up a website where the public can track our implementation of the TRACED Act, the most recent legislative effort to stop robocalls.  But we’re not stopping there.  Because we’re looking for holes in all existing laws and will support the development of new ones to prevent these annoying calls from coming through.  
That’s why we’ve redoubled our efforts to work with the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, and National Association of State Attorneys General to crack down on robocalls.  Because we want to see actions taken and fines collected across all our jurisdictions.   
	And we’re just getting started.  
So I’d like to thank the staff who worked on this rulemaking, including Pam Arluk, Michele Berlove, Matthew Collins, Lynne Engledow, Justin Faulb, Victoria Goldberg, Alexander Hobbs, Dan Kahn, Jonathan Lechter, Albert Lewis, Kris Monteith, and Gil Strobel of the Wireline Competition Bureau; Jerusha Burnett, Aaron Garza, Kurt Schroeder, Mark Stone, and Kristi Thornton of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau; Kim Cook and Jim Schlichting of the International Bureau; Ken Carlberg of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau; Eugene Kiselev, Giulia McHenry, Chuck Needy, Eric Ralph, and Emily Talaga of the Office of Economics and Analytics; and Michele Ellison, Richard Mallen, Linda Oliver, William Richardson, and Derek Yeo of the Office of General Counsel.



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