Sponsors (6)
Introduced April 15, 2026 by Richard Joseph Durbin · Last progress April 15, 2026
The bill strengthens consumer protections against unwanted calls and clarifies regulatory deadlines, but it substantially increases liability, compliance costs, and near-term legal uncertainty for businesses that place or manage calls.
All telephone users (consumers/taxpayers) gain broader Do-Not-Call and robocall protections because the ban now covers all telephone service and the definition of dialing technologies is expanded, making it easier to stop unwanted commercial calls and allowing a single prohibited call to trigger statutory protection and enforcement.
The FCC receives clearer statutory guidance and a required 270-day timeline to update regulations, which should speed implementation, clarify enforcement over autodialers, and help consumers realize protections sooner.
Small businesses and other callers face substantially greater liability and compliance costs because a single call can trigger prohibition and the broadened autodialer definition can sweep in more calling technologies.
Callers (and regulators) will face increased litigation and enforcement uncertainty—ambiguous or expansive language is likely to spur lawsuits and enforcement actions until courts and the FCC interpret the changes, which could slow rulemaking and create short-term uncertainty about permissible outreach practices.
Removing the phrase 'up to' in penalty language could be interpreted to allow higher or less-capped penalties, raising the potential statutory damages and financial exposure for callers.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Extends Do Not Call protection to all telephone service, makes a single prohibited automated call actionable, updates the autodialer definition, and directs the FCC to revise rules within 270 days.
Expands Do Not Call protections from just "residential" telephone service to all telephone service, makes a single robocall or automated call actionable (removes the prior "more than one call in 12 months" requirement), and requires the FCC to update its rules within 270 days. It also changes the statutory definition of "automatic telephone dialing system" by inserting additional language after the existing definition clauses (the exact inserted language is not provided in the text), which may broaden or clarify which dialing technologies are covered.