Richard Blumenthal

I think there are a number of areas where we can work together to ensure that consumers are not only educated but better protected.

Well, I am not sure how to interpret that answer. You would not object but only if it is more far-reaching?

I think that this testimony has been very valuable.

A lot of these issues really seem to come back to consumers knowing what they are doing, paying attention, being educated.

I would not set the threshold at the level of refunds. I would set it at the level of requests for refunds.

The comparison inevitably has to be made to the other payment mechanisms that encounter similar problems.

Both this report and the Committee's earlier report on landline cramming make it abundantly clear that telephone carriers were not doing enough to protect their consumers from fraud.

So the question is: where should the buck stop?

This subject is one very, very close to my heart as a former Attorney General for a couple of decades in Connecticut.

I am here regretfully in place of Chairman Rockefeller, who has an urgent intel, intelligence matter and therefore could not be with us at the opening.

The carriers have made as their share of their customers being crammed is a huge incentive for them to look the other way.

If they were making less money, would there be a greater incentive to take stronger action?

Thank you very much.

Scammers figured out a way to beat the system, not surprisingly. They found ways to cram unauthorized charges onto consumers' bills.

The reality of third-party charges on telephone bills is a markedly different story, a profoundly different tale, and the fact of the matter is that it has not lived up to its potential.

I would welcome more specific ideas from the State Attorneys General, from the FTC, and the FCC, and of course, from the industry as to how we can do better.

Would you object to that rule as applied to your industry?

We appreciate the role played by then-Connecticut Attorney General Blumenthal.

As Senator Blumenthal said, our system is large.

It is really a tribute to her work that she is here today.

The issues that are going to be addressed by our panel today and by your questions, I think, are profoundly important to the future of health care in America.

Truck driver fatigue is a serious problem in the transportation sector and is too often the cause of horrific crashes and needless fatalities.

I want to thank my colleagues, particularly Senator Blunt, for their really excellent participation and their differing points of view on this panel.

I appreciate your point. I might add that one of my grievances about Federal agency and Federal rulemaking is that it has been too laggard, too lengthy in time.

I would think it is kind of basic.