A Florida congressman is looking to crack down on political robocalls by including them on the national Do Not Call registry.
On Wednesday, U.S. Rep. David Jolly, R-Fla., and U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., brought out the Robo Calls Off Phones (Robo COP) Act. Under the new bill, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) would change the Do Not Call registry to ensure it includes recorded campaign messages.
Jolly, who won a special election early last year to represent parts of Pinellas County and kept his seat in November, said Americans have a right to opt out of receiving political robocalls.
Political speech is a fundamental right but not beyond the reach of reasonable regulation, Jolly said on Wednesday. Elected officials should not be placed above others, which is why they should be included on the Do Not Call registry.
Bottom line: Many consider the bombardment of political robocalls to be an invasion of privacy and this legislation protects that privacy, Jolly added.
Every campaign season, like clockwork, families are bombarded by an endless stream of political robocalls, said Foxx. Though citizens are able to stop receiving telemarketing calls, politicians made sure to exempt political robocalls from the power of the Do Not Call registry. Removing that exemption through the Robo COP Act is a matter of fairness.
The proposal does not limit political calls made by people, only recorded ones.
Sunshine State News contacted Jollys office on Thursday to see if there were any sponsors for the bill in the U.S. Senate. Jollys staff informed Sunshine State News that there is no Senate sponsor lined up at this time.
Shaun Dakin, a marketing and communications consultant based in Virginia, founded the National Political Do Not Contact registry in 2008 and has worked with Foxx since then to include robocalls on the Do Not Call registry. While Dakin passed control over the National Political Do Not Contact registry to Nomorobo, he led efforts to stop political robocalls to more than 540,000 phone numbers across the nation.
Dakin talked to Sunshine State News on Thursday and said, while he wished them well, he was not optimistic about Foxxs and Jollys efforts.
I wish them all the luck, Dakin told Sunshine State News. Voters want it to happen. Theres nobody who doesnt want it besides politicians.
Dakin said similar legislation has been buried in committee, never reaching the House or the Senate floor, and expected Foxxs and Jollys bill to suffer the same fate. Dakin did note some hope for a decline in robocalls, noting the expansion of cellphone use and the increasing number of Americans who no longer have home phones.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
