Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs was one of only three members of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote against a bill aimed at curbing robocalls.
Biggs, a second-term Republican from Gilbert, voted on Wednesday against the Stopping Bad Robocalls Act.
The legislation would require companies and some other entities to get people’s consent before making unsolicited, pre-recorded calls, and would require them to establish new, effective ways for people to withdraw that consent, Gizmodo reported on Wednesday. The bill would exempt emergency services and non-commercial entities.
The Federal Communications Commission would be tasked with enforcing the new laws.
The House passed the Stopping Bad Robocalls Act on a 429-3 vote. U.S. Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Justin Amash, a Michigan independent who recently defected from the Republican Party, also voted against the bill.
“Although this bill was well-intentioned, and we can all agree that unwanted robocalls are a scourge on our daily lives, Congressman Biggs does not believe Congress should cede additional regulatory authority to unelected bureaucrats at the FCC to fix this problem. He also does not believe that this bill will provide relief for the robocall problem for everyday Americans,” Biggs spokesman Daniel Stefanski told the Arizona Mirror.
Rather than pass the current bill, Stefanski said Congress should bring stakeholders together, find the best solutions possible and pass laws to codify “real solutions that will ensure robocalls are used legally and when used illegally, consumers will have full recourse to protect themselves.”
Very Good, Andy. Thanks for watching out for us. Does this mean you are putting your ideas into a bill that you would vote for? Robo calls are OUT OF CONTROL. LETS HAVE SOME REAL ACTION TO STOP THE INSANITY, PLEASE.
Stakeholder??!! Is he going to fly in a manager from a boiler room in Bangalore?
I wonder if the $54,000 he got from Telecoms last year had an influence?
https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/summary?cid=N00039293&cycle=2018
Come on Andy. Try and think bigger than that. Too many of us are harassed by unwanted robocalls. Many of the calls are notoriously crooked such as the one that asks for your social security information so they can resume your social security payments and then there is the one from the IRS informing you of the need to take action before deputies show up to arrest you.
He`s probably waiting for another call from Publisher`s Clearance House.
At least you offered the explanation of why the three courageous members of Congress voted as they did.
However, it’s hard to overcome that powerful superstition, promulgated by collectivists and non-thinkers of the so-called “left” and “right,” that government can cure all ills.
Scum who make robocalls — including politicians — can ignore ANY law, in part because … HOW do we catch them? HOW do we stop them?
They spoof real numbers, or call from another country, or use all kinds of subterfuges to prevent any controls.
My guess is the whiners here are quicker to jump on Mr. Biggs because he’s a Republican (which, I agree, is a shameful label), and slower to look at his explanation.
Sorry, but he’s right.
And so far as I’ve been able to tell, our only solution is DON’T ANSWER CALLS from people we don’t know.
Until technology provides us with a lethal weapon, maybe a Star 666 that lets us fatally zap the filth who make those calls.
[…] Amash (I-Mich.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.). A spokesperson for Biggs told the Arizona Mirror that the representative “does not believe Congress should cede additional regulatory […]