Telemarketers would be prohibited from blocking their telephone numbers on caller-identification equipment under a bill the House of Representatives approved Wednesday 420 to 0.
The measure, Know Your Caller, now goes to the Senate where the Know Your Caller Act of 2000, sponsored by Sen. Dr. Bill Frist (R-TN), is pending and could be voted upon before the end of October.
Both the House and Senate bills would amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit telemarketers from blocking their phone numbers from caller-identification equipment and have the Federal Communications Commission develop rules and regulations. But the House measure would also require telemarketers to maintain do-not-call lists and prohibit them from selling or otherwise transferring those lists to anyone for marketing purposes. Senate passage of Frist’s bill without those provisions would automatically send both measures to a conference committee to reconcile.
Although the Direct Marketing Association “basically supports” the House bill, it is concerned with its treatment of do-not-call lists, according to Richard A. Barton, senior vice president of congressional matters.
“While the intention in the bill is to say that telemarketers cannot rent their do-not-call lists for marketing purposes, which is standard under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the actual language in the bill is not clear,” Barton said. “We’d like to see the conference committee clarify that and several other minor technical points in the bill.”
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