Congress Approves Legislation Authorizing National
"Do Not Call" Telemarketing List
September 25, 2003

Washington, DC - The U.S. Congress today approved legislation to authorize a national "Do Not Call" registry one day after a federal judge sought to invalidate the registry by ruling that the Federal Trade Commission did not have the Congressional authority to maintain and enforce the list.

The bill approved by both the House and Senate, was similar to legislation sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and John Ensign (R-Nev.) and over 50 other Senators. As a procedural matter, rather than taking up the Ensign-Feinstein bill, the Senate approved the version passed earlier by the House so it could be sent immediately to the President.

The following is Senator Feinstein's statement entered into the Congressional Record today:

"Mr. President, I come to the floor today to introduce and vote on legislation with my colleagues, Senator Ensign of Nevada, Senator DeWine of Ohio, Senator Dorgan of North Dakota and others, which would enable Congress to grant the Federal Trade Commission explicit authority to enact the National Do-Not-Call Registry. I would also acknowledge Commerce Committee Chairman McCain and the Ranking Member, Senator Hollings, for their leadership in enabling this bill to come to the Floor so quickly.

I am glad to see that so many of our fellow colleagues, from both sides of the aisle, have joined us in this important and urgent effort, and that we were able to take up this legislation so quickly, in record time. It was only about 24 hours ago that I first raised this issue on the Senate Floor.

Our bill is identical in language to the bill introduced in the House of Representatives, and we expect one or both of the bills to pass today. The bill simply confirms what we all already thought was true, that the Federal Trade Commission has the authority to implement a "Do-Not-Call" registry.

We in Congress must act quickly, because this registry is due to go into effect in just one week on October 1st. Literally tens of millions of Americans have registered their phone numbers not to be called by telemarketers.

I have rarely seen an issue where so many millions of Americans have made there strong preferences known. Are we going to simply tell them that this was all a myth? Or is Congress going to act to honor our earlier commitments and to protect this important right to privacy? These citizens expect us to act - and I believe that the momentum is clearly on our side.

If allowed to stand, the decision made by an Oklahoma district court judge that the National Do-Not-Call registry would strike a powerful blow against the basic privacy interests of millions of Americans.

Right now, these people are subjected to unwanted and annoying marketing calls to their homes at all times of the day, including the dinner hour.

According to industry estimates, about 60 million telemarketing calls are made daily.

With advances in technology and declining telephone costs, consumers would face the prospect of an unprecedented barrage of calls. And this is why the registry is so important.

The FTC's Registry will give Americans who want to avoid these unsolicited sales pitches a chance to stop annoying intrusions into their home.

As we know, tens of millions of Americans have registered more than 50 million phone numbers for this program. In the end, the Federal Trade Commission expects 60 percent of the Nation's households with approximately 60 million home phone lines to sign on to the registry.

This registry is crucial because it puts consumers in charge of the number of telemarketing calls they receive. Telemarketers who disregard the Registry could be fined up to $11,000 per call.

The Oklahoma district court yesterday ruled that the Do Not Call Registry is "invalid" -- that is the word the judge used in his decision -- because it was created without congressional authority.

I find this conclusion surprising since Congress passed H.R. 395, the Do-Not-Call Implementation Act on February 13^th of this year. The legislation clearly authorizes the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission to collect fees sufficient to implement the Registry. And the Approriations Committee granted $18 million for the program.

I also note that the FTC's rule came after an exhaustive comment period. The FTC announced its plan to proceed with the Registry on December 18, 2002, after receiving 64,000 comments. The overwhelming majority of these comments favored the creation of the Registry.

Millions of Americans were promised protection from annoying, unwanted telemarketing calls starting October 1. They are outraged - and so are we - by this setback. Congress must move now and unanimously adopt and pass legislation which grants the authority to the FTC, clearly and unequivocally - so that no Federal judge can misunderstand it.

Many of us were taken by surprise yesterday, but by putting this legislation to a vote now, we are doing the right thing. On October 1, let's make sure that the millions of Americans who want their privacy protected from these telemarketers are not disappointed. I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this legislation, and I yield the floor."