Federal Communications Commission	"FCC  XX-XXX"


STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER GEOFFREY STARKS

Re: 	Advanced Methods to Target and Eliminate Unlawful Robocalls, CG Docket No. 17-59; Call Authentication Trust Anchor, WC Docket No. 17-97, Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (September 30, 2021).

I am proud of the work we have done—and continue to do—to combat illegal and unwanted robocalls, a major source of harm and potential fraud to the American public.  But there is still more to do.  As I have long said, illegal robocalls will continue so long as those initiating and facilitating them can get away with and profit from it.  Last year’s estimated 46 billion robocalls and last month’s estimated 4.1 billion calls are proof positive of that.  We must therefore continue to be vigilant in our efforts to identify the sources of these calls and stop them in their tracks.  
Foreign-originated illegal robocalls that use U.S.-based numbers are a particularly challenging problem, in large part because such calls cannot always be traced to their foreign sources.  By proposing to require U.S.-based gateway providers, the point of entry for foreign calls into the United States, to be the first line of defense, we improve our chances of tracing these calls back to their original sources so we can hold them accountable.  That ability, coupled with other proposals in this Further Notice to improve on our anti-robocalling rules, should get us closer to our goal of stopping illegal robocalls for good.  My thanks to the Consumer and Governmental Affairs and Wireline Competition Bureaus for their hard work on this proceeding.



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