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) report and order creating a reassigned numbers database to help consumers avoid unwanted robocalls and robotexts.

“We applaud the Commission for their continued efforts to protect the American public and promote public interest with a reassigned numbers database,” said Thune and Markey. “Once implemented, this database will help legitimate callers avoid making unwanted calls and texts to Americans who have acquired the phone number of a previous user who had signed up for messages.”

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. Last month, Sens. Thune and Markey introduced S. 3655, the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act, which would give regulators more time to pursue enforcement actions against scammers, increase civil forfeiture penalties for those caught, promote call authentication and blocking adoption, and bring relevant federal agencies and state attorneys general together to address impediments to criminal prosecution of robocallers who intentionally ignore laws.