Lawmaker is the House author of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act

Washington (January 28, 2015) – More than twenty years ago, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) was passed to protect consumers from unsolicited and intrusive telephone calls from telemarketers while families were eating meals together or parents were helping children with homework. Today, with efforts underway by various industries to weaken TCPA and allow auto-dialers to call consumers’ mobile devices, Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and 13 Senate Democrats joined in a letter calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reject any attempts to weaken or undermine the law. Since 2003, more than 223 million Americans have put their phone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry. Despite having the Registry in place, the Federal Trade Commission reported 3,748,655 telemarketing complaints in 2013, of which at least 58 percent were reported as including a recorded message.

“By banning auto dialing and pre-recorded calls to land lines and mobile phones, with certain exceptions, and establishing the National Do Not Call Registry, the law created a zone of privacy that remains hugely popular with consumers to this day,” write the Senators in the letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. “These protections should continue for years to come. The FCC should reject calls to weaken or undermine this effective law.”

Text of the letter to the FCC can be found HERE.

ignatories on the letter include Senators Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Kristen Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn).