WASHINGTON, DC – The Communications and Technology Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), today unanimously advanced H.R. 2669, the Anti Spoofing Act of 2015, and H.R. 2566, the Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act of 2015, to the full committee.

H.R. 2669, introduced by Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) and co-sponsored by committee members Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) and Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), would;

• Protect consumers from fraudulent actors and deceptive text messages.

“This bill seeks to extend the protections of the Truth In Caller ID Act to include text messages,” noted Chairman Walden. “This is the second time we’ve looked at this legislation that will provide additional protections for consumers, and I’m hopeful this time we will see it successfully land on the president’s desk.”

H.R. 2566, introduced by Rep. David Young (R-IA), would;

• Require intermediate providers to register with the FCC and comply with the service quality standards set by the agency in order to improve call quality from long distance or wireless calls in rural areas throughout the country.

“Today we took a significant step forward in the fight to ensure that rural customers get the same high-quality voice services that others take for granted,” said Chairman Walden. “I was pleased to hear the strong bipartisan support for this measure, and I’m optimistic that this can make a big difference in the way rural consumers receive their telephone calls.”

Full committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) concluded, “ Rural consumers in Southwest Michigan and around the country expect to receive dependable service, but the truth is that they are disproportionally plagued with failed calls and poor call quality. I have heard directly from providers in my district as well as local small businesses that this is an issue of great importance and demands action. Additionally, as our methods of communications evolve and innovate to the benefit of consumers, bad actors have also evolved to consumers’ detriment. I’m thankful my colleagues on both sides of the aisle joined in supporting and advancing these bipartisan, consumer-minded bills to the full committee.”

For more information on today’s markup, including a background memo, archived webcast, and text of the legislation, click HERE.

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