Truth in Caller ID Act of 2006

Truth in Caller ID Act of 2006 - Amends the Communications Act of 1934 to make it unlawful for any person in the United States, in connection with any telecommunication service or VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) service, to cause any caller identification service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification information, with the intent to defraud or cause harm.

[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5126 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5126

  To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit manipulation of 
       caller identification information, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 6, 2006

   Mr. Barton of Texas (for himself, Mr. Engel, Mr. Simmons, and Mr. 
  Reichert) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit manipulation of 
       caller identification information, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Truth in Caller ID Act of 2006''.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION REGARDING MANIPULATION OF CALLER IDENTIFICATION 
              INFORMATION.

    Section 227 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227) is 
amended--
            (1) by redesignating subsections (e), (f), and (g) as 
        subsections (f), (g), and (h), respectively; and
            (2) by inserting after subsection (d) the following new 
        subsection:
    ``(e) Prohibition on Provision of Inaccurate Caller Identification 
Information.--
            ``(1) In general.--It shall be unlawful for any person 
        within the United States, in connection with any 
        telecommunications service or VOIP service, to cause any caller 
        identification service to transmit misleading or inaccurate 
        caller identification information, unless such transmission is 
        exempted pursuant to paragraph (3)(B).
            ``(2) Protection for blocking caller identification 
        information.--Nothing in this subsection may be construed to 
        prevent or restrict any person from blocking the capability of 
        any caller identification service to transmit caller 
        identification information.
            ``(3) Regulations.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Not later than 6 months after 
                the enactment of this subsection, the Commission shall 
                prescribe regulations to implement this subsection.
                    ``(B) Exemption.--The regulations under this 
                paragraph shall exempt from the prohibition under 
                paragraph (1) transmissions in connection with 
                authorized activities of law enforcement agencies.
            ``(4) Definitions.--For purposes of this subsection:
                    ``(A) Caller identification information.--The term 
                `caller identification information' means information 
                provided by a caller identification service regarding 
                the telephone number of, or other information regarding 
                the origination of, a call made using a 
                telecommunications service or VOIP service.
                    ``(B) Caller identification service.--The term 
                `caller identification service' means any service or 
                device designed to provide the user of the service or 
                device with the telephone number of, or other 
                information regarding the origination of, a call made 
                using a telecommunications service or VOIP service. 
                Such term includes automatic number identification 
                services.
                    ``(C) VOIP service.--The term `VOIP service' means 
                a service that--
                            ``(i) provides real-time 2-way voice 
                        communications transmitted through customer 
                        premises equipment using TCP/IP protocol, or a 
                        successor protocol (including when the voice 
                        communication is converted to or from TCP/IP 
                        protocol by the VOIP service provider and 
                        transmitted to the subscriber without use of 
                        circuit switching), for a fee;
                            ``(ii) is offered to the public, or such 
                        classes of users as to be effectively available 
                        to the public (whether part of a bundle of 
                        services or separately); and
                            ``(iii) has the capability to originate 
                        traffic to, and terminate traffic from, the 
                        public switched telephone network.
            ``(5) Limitation.--Notwithstanding any other provision of 
        this section, subsection (f) shall not apply to this subsection 
        or to the regulations under this subsection.''.
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