Every day, across the United States, people are bombarded with the incessant ringing of robocalls. It's an issue of privacy, of time, and indeed, of money. Stepping up to address this, a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from 46 states, led by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, has taken a significant stance. As reported by the Illinois Attorney General's office, the coalition is urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to tighten up the vetting process for telecommunications providers by ramping up the rigors of its Robocall Mitigation Database (RMD).
This database, which became operational in 2021, requires service providers to register to gain clearance to operate within the U.S. Yet, it seems the system may have been somewhat of a paper tiger. "Since it went live in 2021, the RMD has done little to prevent bad actors from obtaining legitimate registrations to send illegal robocalls through the U.S. telephone network," says Raoul. Allegations of non-vetted submissions and inaccurate, false, or misleading information being filed abound, laying bare an unmonitored loophole that has allowed such robocalls to plague phone networks unchecked.
Raoul, as a consistently vocal advocate against the robocall epidemic, along with the coalition, is pressing the FCC for a clampdown. Proposed changes to fortify and enforce compliance include clearer guidance on the submission process and deadlines, the validation of data to weed out inaccuracies, and substantial penalties such as barring non-compliant providers from the network. "I am urging the FCC to improve its Robocall Mitigation Database to increase accountability as we all work to reduce the illegal and intrusive robocalls," Raoul told the Illinois Attorney General's office.
Combatting robocalls has been a marathon endeavor for Raoul. He is a member of the Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force and the Robocall Mitigation Working Group, aiming to strike at the very heart of this pervasive issue. In the past, he's partnered with phone companies and other attorneys general in the creation of principles to fight robocalls, and he's backed the Telephone Consumer Protection Act in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. With the backing of attorneys general from a wide swath of the country, from Alabama to Wyoming, the letter sent to the FCC represents a united front, a collective voice demanding change and protection for consumers who have for too long been the unwilling recipients of these relentless calls.
