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Subcommittee chair highlights scale and harms of robocalls, urges action
Summary
The subcommittee chair opened the hearing by describing the scope and financial harm of illegal robocalls and called for additional legislative and regulatory steps to protect consumers and reduce fraud.
The chair of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce subcommittee opened the hearing by framing robocalls as a major national problem and urging further action from Congress. He said the calls cause financial harm and erode trust in legitimate callers, and he emphasized the need to avoid imposing burdens on lawful callers while targeting illegal operations.
“Americans received an estimated 4,300,000,000 robocalls last month alone,” the chair said, and he added that fraud perpetrated by illegal robocalls “costs an average of $22,000,000,000 annually.” He framed those costs as falling primarily on people who can least afford losses and said the fraud also leads people to ignore important legitimate calls. The chair said Congress must balance enforcement with avoiding undue burdens on legitimate callers.
