CO Lawmaker Plans to Reintroduce Telemarketing DNC List Bill

Less than two weeks after a Colorado legislative panel refused to endorse a bill creating a state-run telemarketing do-not-call list, a state lawmaker said he plans to introduce a new and more restrictive measure.

Republican State Representative Al White indicated that the bill he plans to introduce in the next several weeks should overcome the objections of some other lawmakers to the original bill’s provision exempting fund-raising calls from political parties and nonprofit organizations to people on the no-call list.

The House Business Affairs and Labor Committee in a 6-5 vote two weeks ago refused to endorse the Colorado Telemarketing No Call List Act (SB-93), which would have authorized the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to develop the telemarketing do-not-call list.

A month earlier, the Senate, in a 30-4 vote approved the bill, which Gov. Bill Owens (R) said he would sign into law.

While there would have been no charge for residents asking to be placed on the list, the measure would have required telemarketers to buy the list for a yet-to-be determined fee and subject violators to fines of up to $2,000 per incident.

White, without going into detail about the planned bill’s contents, said that while he hoped the legislation could be adopted by summer’s end, there was a possibility that the bill might include a provision to put the question of a state-run do-not-call list before voters in November.