Joe Barton: “The Congress is not spoofing when we say we are going to do something about those individuals that do try to spoof the…”

“The Congress is not spoofing when we say we are going to do something about those individuals that do try to spoof the American public. As has been pointed out, we passed a law back in, actually, it was the 2009 act, but we passed it in 2010, the Truth in Caller ID Act, to mitigate the effects of caller spoofing. As you well know, you look on your caller ID and you see that an innocent or innocuous individual or company is calling you, as has been pointed out. It could be the police department, could be the Pizza Hut, could be almost anything, so you take the call and that is not what it is. In many cases they are trying to defraud our elderly in some scam or something like this. So we passed a law that we thought would handle it. But it needs to be updated, and that is what this bill does. As has been pointed out, it makes it illegal to initiate these calls from outside the United States. It makes it illegal to do it over the Internet with a Voice Over Internet Protocol-based system. And it also broadens the jurisdiction to include text messaging. As we well know, Mr. Speaker, text messaging is ubiquitous now on our Blackberrys and our iPads and iPhones and all of our personal telecommunication devices. This bill has bipartisan support. The subcommittee chairman, Mr. Walden, is an original cosponsor. The subcommittee ranking member, Ms. Eshoo of California, is a cosponsor. Chairman Emeritus on the Democratic side John Dingell is a cosponsor.…”