Biggs 1 of only 3 votes against anti-robocall bill

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.”