WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), author of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, issued the following joint statement on the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) draft order for a comprehensive database of reassigned telephone numbers to help consumers avoid unwanted robocalls and robotexts.

“No Thanksgiving dinner should be interrupted by intrusive and unwanted robocalls,” said Thune and Markey. “A reassigned numbers database could curb the increase in unwanted calls and texts and also provide more certainty to legitimate callers seeking to communicate important information to their patients, customers, or employees.  We applaud the Commission for their effort to create this database, and support its swift implementation.”

In July, Sens. Thune and Markey sent a letter to Chairman Ajit Pai outlining an opportunity for the FCC to take action and better protect consumers from unwanted robocalls and robotexts. Earlier this month, Sens. Thune and Markey introduced S. 3655, the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act, which gives regulators more time to pursue enforcement actions against scammers, increases civil forfeiture penalties for those caught, promotes call authentication and blocking adoption, and brings relevant federal agencies and state attorneys general together to address impediments to criminal prosecution of robocallers who intentionally ignore laws.