Rep. Gottheimer Votes To Stop Robocalls

BERGEN COUNTY, NJ — The incessant robocalls at all hours of the day have most likely deterred you from answering your phone. Now, relief is on the horizon as the U.S. Congress passed a bill to help consumers on Wednesday.

The bipartisan Stopping Bad Robocalls Act, co-sponsored by Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-5), will implement a nationwide caller authentication system and give the Federal Communications Commission more power to protect consumers from these calls.

The bill specifies that consumers should not face additional charges for having robocalls blocked through authentication technology. It also sets reasonable deadlines for the Federal Communications Commission to develop regulations to help consumers fight against scammers.

"All over the country, seniors are being preyed on by scammers looking to cheat them out of their hard-earned money," said Gottheimer. "It’s unacceptable and I’m glad this legislation takes steps to protect the seniors in our community for these disgusting attempts to make a quick buck."

In 2018, about 47.8 billion robocalls were placed nationwide, which is an increase of 17 billion calls from 2017. Many of those calls came from scammers, resulting in 22 million Americans losing a total of $9.5 billion in 2016.

Email: daniel.hubbard@patch.com