H.R. 6152 — Foreign Robocall Elimination Act

This section establishes a taskforce on unlawful robocalls (i.e., telephone calls violating robocall restrictions under the Communications Act of 1934) not later than 270 days after enactment of the Act. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair, after consultation with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chair and Attorney General, designates and appoints representatives from appropriate federal agencies; seven private-sector representatives—with specified expertise (e.g., voice service providers, analytics providers, marketers, customer advocates)—are jointly appointed by the FCC, FTC, and Department of Justice leaders notwithstanding the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. ch. 10), with the FCC chair appointing if no agreement is reached (subject to Commission vote if requested). The taskforce must prepare a report for federal agencies and Congress with recommendations on combating unlawful robocalls into the United States from abroad, studying matters such as (1) comparative volumes of domestic versus foreign-origin robocalls, (2) top foreign sources, (3) financial and identity theft losses, (4) promoting caller ID authentication abroad (including STIR/SHAKEN standards), (5) international collaboration and incentives, and (6) technical solution implementation.

This section directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to issue rules requiring certain voice service providers to post a bond of not more than $100,000 before certifying a robocall mitigation program in the Robocall Mitigation Database (i.e., an FCC database enabling traceback and blocking of unlawful robocalls under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. 227). The rules must (1) exempt providers for which the bond is unnecessary to deter unlawful robocalls, considering factors such as FCC registration and universal service contributions, state regulatory authority, national securities exchange listing, or other indicia of a bona fide provider; and (2) in implementation, require bonds from providers lacking legitimate operations, sufficient regulatory oversight, or ability to pay enforcement penalties while establishing categorical exemptions for legitimate providers and minimizing burdens on compliant ones.

This section amends the Pallone-Thune TRACED Act to (1) provide immunity to the registered consortium against any cause of action for receiving, sharing, or publishing covered information—defined as data on suspected fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful robocalls, illegally spoofed calls, or other illegal calls, including call detail records, voice service provider identifying information, and caller entity details; and (2) authorize the FCC or the registered consortium, in consultation with the FCC, to publish a list of voice service providers that refuse to participate in private-led traceback efforts or that originate or transmit substantial amounts of unlawful robocalls, with the FCC authorized to take enforcement action based on such information.