Foreign Robocall Elimination Act

The bill would require the FCC, after consulting the Federal Trade Commission and the Attorney General, to establish an interagency taskforce on unlawful robocalls within 270 days of enactment. The taskforce, made up of federal officials and industry and consumer representatives, would study international robocall traffic and report recommendations to Congress within 360 days of its formation, after which it would terminate. The bill would also stretch the FCC's re-application cycle for the industry consortium that traces robocall origins from annually to once every three years, grant that consortium legal immunity for receiving, sharing, or publishing trace-back data, and let the FCC or consortium publish lists of voice service providers that refuse to cooperate or that carry substantial unlawful robocall traffic. Separately, the bill would direct the FCC to issue rules requiring some voice service providers to post a bond of up to $100,000 before registering in the agency's Robocall Mitigation Database, while creating exemptions for established, regulated, or publicly traded providers. It would not itself impose criminal penalties or create new causes of action against robocallers.

The Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission, and Department of Justice, which would staff and consult on the taskforce; voice service providers and analytics companies, which face potential bonding requirements and public listing; the industry-led trace-back consortium; and consumers who receive unwanted foreign robocalls.

Consumers could see slower but more coordinated federal action against overseas robocall operations, while voice service providers face new compliance costs, including a possible bond, and reputational risk from public listing if they don't cooperate with trace-back efforts. The trace-back consortium would gain legal protection that could encourage more aggressive information-sharing.

The FCC would consult with the FTC and Attorney General to stand up the taskforce within 270 days, appoint federal and private-sector members under specified procedures, and have the taskforce study international robocall trends before reporting to Congress within 360 days of formation; the taskforce would then dissolve 90 days later. Separately, the FCC would conduct rulemaking to define bond amounts and exemption criteria for the Robocall Mitigation Database, and would periodically re-solicit applications for the trace-back consortium designation every three years instead of annually, publishing noncompliant-provider lists as a basis for enforcement.