William Tauzin: “Mr. Speaker, H.R. 90, the Know Your Caller Act, by my good friend the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Frelinghuysen)…”

“Mr. Speaker, H.R. 90, the Know Your Caller Act, by my good friend the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Frelinghuysen), deals with the controversial business practice of telemarketing. There are thousands of reputable telemarketing companies and they provide a benefit to the public by offering a broad range of consumer products and business opportunities. These companies employ hundreds of thousands of citizens across this country and they fuel this economy with literally billions of dollars. Increasingly, however, telemarketers are the cause of complaints. Consumers are concerned that telemarketers are intruding into their homes, and we continue to hear stories about telemarketing schemes that separate consumers from their hard-earned money. In fact, telemarketing complaints lodged with the Federal Trade Commission seem to support these consumer concerns. In 1997, for example, there were 2,260 complaints. In 2000, there were 36,804 complaints, a significant increase. H.R. 90 takes these consumer complaints seriously. With the excellent work of the author, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Frelinghuysen), we can remove the cloak of secrecy that fraudulent telemarketers use to swindle their victims. No longer will telemarketers be able to hide behind the anonymous telephone call. H.R. 90 prohibits telemarketers from blocking the transmission of caller ID information.”