Federal Communications Commission	"FCC  XX-XXX"


STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER JESSICA ROSENWORCEL

Re:	In the Matter of Advanced Methods to Target and Eliminate Unlawful Robocalls, Alarm Industry Communications Committee Petition for Clarification or Reconsideration, American Dental Association Petition for Clarification or Reconsideration, CG Docket No. 17-59.

This is the third order in as many years from the Federal Communications Commission regarding the blocking of robocalls.  It is our fourth rulemaking on the same subject.  It comes on the heels of another rulemaking to crack down on one-ring scams, a decision requiring call authentication technology, and rules to establish a traceback consortium.  That’s a lot of activity on robocalls from this agency.  But the volume of robocalls is even higher.  Month after month they number in the billions.  It’s clear the robocalls are winning.  They continue to tumble in, ring after ring, offering us something we did not ask for, do not want, and do not need.  

So here we are.  In this third order and fourth rulemaking the FCC itemizes the conditions under which our phone companies can block robocalls.  We establish safe harbors from liability for carriers that use a combination of analytics and call authentication technology to block calls from those responsible for allowing this junk on the line.  We also seek comment on strengthening participation in trace back efforts.  

This is good.  It’s even better that at the behest of the TRACED Act we make clear that this robocall blocking by carriers has to be free to consumers.  It wasn’t that long ago that I had to dissent because this agency refused to prohibit us from being charged for these robocall blocking technologies.  I continue to believe that consumers aren’t responsible for putting this junk on the line so they shouldn’t have to pay to get rid of it.  

Again, this is a positive development.  But you know what would be even better still?  Getting rid of annoying robocalls for good.  Last week the Supreme Court issued a decision making clear that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act can still be used to protect consumers from robocalls.  So let’s use it.  Because another high court decision is looming that could loosen this law and make autodialed robocalls even more common.  So let’s get to it.  Because in the race against robocalls, we have work to do.  

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