Comment by Frank Pallone

Combating the surge of unwanted robocalls and robotexts has been a priority of mine for years. And, as I appreciate Chairman Guthrie saying, in 2009, I led passage of the TRACED Act. And this law has helped protect Americans from predatory and annoying robocalls and gave Federal agencies better tools to fight back against fraudsters. [...] closed loopholes exploited by scammers, combated the use of AI for scams, and alleviated the robocall-blocking technology for consumers. My colleagues and I are working on updates to strengthen that package, and I am sure today's testimony will help inform our thinking on how to better protect consumers from unwanted robocalls and robotexts. Federal consumer protection agencies are vital components of this fight against the robocalls and robotexts. But since taking office, President Trump has attempted to remove Senate- confirmed FTC Commissioners, reduce FTC and FCC staff, and that cripples these two important agencies' efforts to protect consumers. Unverified source