On the recordApril 14, 2010
Let me just comment a little bit further. The gentleman from New York mentioned some specific examples. There is another example that is used in political campaigns he perhaps knows about where people can use spoofing to call different homes in robo phone banking that calls and go around the congressional district as a fake and wake people up at 2 or 3 in the morning and people think this is coming from someone who it is not, and this has happened on both sides of the aisle. So this would prevent that. So I think it hits a little closer to home when you talk about it in those terms. The other point that has been a concern is why has this bill not passed? I think the question has always been some kind of legal questions, whether there is liability involved for the phone company or anyone that transmits this information to a consumer or constituent through this illegal act of spoofing. And we are able to change that language, through bipartisanship, both sides, to try and make it--for example, if a phone company, not knowing, and how would they know, transmits the information, are they going to be liable for this, to be sued? Well, we worked it out that their not knowing, then they should not be liable for this. So I think that's important that this bill now has language that represents bipartisanship agreement so that the passage of this bill should be assured, I think, this time.
