Chairman Palmer Delivers Opening Statement at O&I Hearing on Stopping Illegal Robocalls

Good morning and welcome to today's hearing entitled Stopping Illegal Robocalls and Robotex progress challenges and next steps. All of us have personal experiences with unwanted robocalls and robotext. Some are merely annoying, but others have devastating consequences. For example, in March, the FCC warned consumers about scam robocalls targeting older Americans and the Department of Justice announced that it charged 25 individuals for participating in the same scam that defrauded Americans out of more than $21 million and more than 40 states. The scammers made phone calls pretending to be an individual's grandchild who needed money for bail and after being arrested, Or pretended to be the grandchild's attorney and were told that they could not speak to anyone about the arrest. This is one of the many heartbreaking examples of scams perpetrated on Americans by illegal robocallers and bad actors. According to recent estimates in April of 2025, nearly 2000 robocalls were placed to US consumers every second. Spam and scam calls make consumers feel threatened, fearful, and distrustful of legitimate causes. As more and more Americans ignore calls from unknown numbers, they miss important calls. Moreover, fraud perpetrated against Americans by illegal robocalls costs an average of $25 billion annually, primarily affecting those who cannot afford such losses. We're also seeing a lot of unwanted, uh, and scam robotext and AI generated phone calls and text messages including voice clones and deep fakes. According to the FCC, consumer complaints about unwanted text messages, increased 500-fold between 2015 and 2022. Americans are frustrated and understandably so. In 2019, the bipartisanalon Thum telephone robocall abuse criminal enforcement and deterrence are traced back, was enacted to help reduce the flood of illegal robocalls. The trace act allowed the SEC and law enforcement to impose stricter penalties for intentional violations of the telephone Consumer Protection Act or TCPA. Improved, improved adoption of technical solutions like stir and shake and call authentication framework and established a federal interagency working group to combat illegal robocalls. As a result, US telecommunications scares have made progress implementing stir shaken into their networks. This framework authenticates that phone calls are coming from a legitimate phone numbers, which helps reduce the number of spoofed and illegal robocalls. Generally to operate within the US voice service providers must now implement robo call mitigation programs and follow these plans and they're shaking compliance uh certifications, certifications in the robocall mitigation database overseen by the FCC. Moreover, in July 2020, the FCC recognized the US telecom industry trace back group as the single registered consortium to conduct private led. Trace back efforts that identify the source of an illegal robocall. The FCC also has also taken measures to address the growing burden of unwanted and scam robotexed and abused AI technologies, specifically in March 2023, the agency adopted regulations targeting scam robotext. In addition, industry actors have partnered with federal agencies to launch new programs such as Robotex tracing. Lastly, in August, the FCC proposed rules to protect consumers from AI generated robocalls and robotexts. These are steps in the right direction, and I applaud the coordination we've seen thus far. While the TCPA has provided many useful tools, the TCPA's private right of action has given rise to class action lawsuits focused on minor infractions rather than the bad actors responsible for placing a legal robocalls, and it has not reduced the number of illegal robocalls or improved consumer protection. In addition, stir shaken implementation among smaller carriers has been delayed, and bad actors have exploited these providers' reliance on legacy infrastructure. Moreover, a majority of the illegal robocalls and Robotechs originate overseas, making them hard to trace. Because these bad actors are outside the jurisdiction of US law enforcement. They're challenging to combat. Finally, the FCC must grapple with emerging technologies and navigate the best way to create appropriate guardrails for these technologies while simultaneously continued to support innovation. We will always have robocalls and robot texts because not all of them are illegal. Many are used for legitimate purposes by used businesses and public entities, but we must continue finding ways to combat the unwanted communications. I want to thank our panel of witnesses for joining us. I look forward to a robust discussion to understand the current landscape of illegal robocalls and robotex plaguing US consumers and businesses, so we can work together to identify and address remaining challenges.