For Release: November 13, 2024
Washington, D.C. – The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) sent a letter on behalf of a bipartisan coalition of 47 state attorneys general calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to improve their Robocall Mitigation Database (RMD) and close what has effectively been an unmonitored loophole that bad actors exploit to access the U.S. telephone network. Attorneys general are at the forefront of fighting to reduce the illegal robocalls that plague Americans, but scammers continue to find new ways to bombard people with illegal robocalls and robotexts. The letter can be found here.
Providers must register on the FCC’s database to operate as a voice service provider in the United States. However, since it went live in 2021, the database has done little to prevent bad actors from obtaining legitimate registrations to send illegal robocalls through the U.S. telephone network. Companies have submitted non-vetted information and voice service providers have faced no real consequences for filing inaccurate, false, misleading, or otherwise incomplete information.
The coalition of Attorneys General is calling on the FCC to strengthen the database so providers understand what information they need to submit and have deadlines to submit this information, validate the data providers submit to flag inaccurate or misleading data, penalize providers for submitting false or inadequate information by preventing them from getting authorization to operate and blocking non-compliant providers. If adopted, the proposed changes would make it harder for bad actors to gain access to the entire U.S. telephone network and would stop more illegal robocalls from reaching people in the United States.
The following jurisdictions joined today’s letter:
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
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The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) is the nonpartisan national forum for America’s attorneys general and their staff. NAAG provides a community for members to collaboratively address issues important to their work and resources to support attorneys general in protecting the rule of law and the United States Constitution.