Veterans and Servicemember Consumer Protection Act of 2021
This bill directs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to designate a coordinator within the Bureau of Consumer Protection to advise the FTC on preventing fraud targeting military veterans and service members and to assist the FTC in monitoring the market for mail, television, internet, telemarketing, and recorded message telephone call (robocall) fraud targeting those individuals.
The coordinator must (1) disseminate to veterans, service members, and their families and caregivers information about the most common fraud schemes, including methods of reporting complaints to the FTC; (2) make complaints immediately available to relevant law enforcement authorities; (3) publish information regarding the FTC's enforcement actions; and (4) maintain a website as a resource for information on fraud targeting those individuals.
[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4483 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
117th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 4483
To establish a coordinator within the Federal Trade Commission to
prevent fraud and scams targeting or adversely affecting military
veterans and servicemembers, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 16, 2021
Miss Rice of New York (for herself and Mr. Upton) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and
Commerce
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To establish a coordinator within the Federal Trade Commission to
prevent fraud and scams targeting or adversely affecting military
veterans and servicemembers, 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 ``Veterans and Servicemember Consumer
Protection Act of 2021''.
SEC. 2. COORDINATOR FOR THE PREVENTION OF FRAUD AND SCAMS TARGETING OR
ADVERSELY AFFECTING VETERANS AND SERVICEMEMBERS.
(a) Establishment of Coordinator.--The Chairman of the Federal
Trade Commission shall designate a coordinator (in this section
referred to as the ``coordinator'') within the Bureau of Consumer
Protection for the purpose of advising the Commission on the prevention
of fraud and other scams targeting or adversely affecting United States
military veterans and servicemembers and to assist the Commission with
the following:
(1) Oversight.--The coordinator shall collaborate with
other staff of the Bureau of Consumer Protection to monitor the
market for fraud and scams using mail, television, internet,
telemarketing, or recorded message telephone call (in this
section referred to as ``robocall'') solicitations and
marketing that target or adversely affect United States
military veterans and servicemembers and shall assist in
coordinating with other relevant agencies as appropriate
regarding the requirements of this section.
(2) Consumer education.--The coordinator shall, in
consultation with the Attorney General, the Secretary of
Veterans Affairs, the Secretary of Defense, the Postmaster
General, the Chief Postal Inspector for the United States
Postal Inspection Service, and other relevant agencies as
appropriate, coordinate and support the Commission's work to--
(A) disseminate to United States military veterans
and servicemembers and the families and caregivers of
such individuals general information on fraud and scams
using mail, television, internet, telemarketing, or
robocall solicitations and marketing that target or
adversely affect United States military veterans and
servicemembers, including descriptions of the most
common fraud and other scams;
(B) disseminate to United States military veterans
and servicemembers and the families and caregivers of
such individuals information on reporting fraud and
scams targeting or adversely affecting United States
military veterans and servicemembers to
ReportFraud.ftc.gov (or another appropriate website
operated by the Commission, as determined by the
Chairman of the Commission) where such complaints will
become available to applicable law enforcement
agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation
and the attorneys general of the States;
(C) provide publicly available information about
enforcement actions taken by the Commission related to
fraud or scams using mail, television, internet,
telemarketing, or robocall solicitations and marketing;
and
(D) maintain a website to serve as a resource for
information for United States military veterans and
servicemembers and the families and caregivers of such
individuals regarding fraud or scams using mail,
television, internet, telemarketing, or robocall
solicitations and marketing, and other identified fraud
and other scams, that target or adversely affect United
States military veterans and servicemembers.
(3) Complaints.--The coordinator shall coordinate and
support the Commission's establishment of procedures to--
(A) review complaints by United States military
veterans and servicemembers who believe they have been
a victim of fraud or scams using mail, television,
internet, telemarketing, or robocall solicitations and
marketing in the Consumer Sentinel Network, and shall
make those complaints immediately available to
applicable Federal, State, and local law enforcement
authorities; and
(B) regularly update the Consumer Sentinel
Network's Military Dashboard Report to make public
aggregated, general information on reports of fraud and
scams using mail, television, internet, telemarketing,
or robocall solicitations and marketing, including
descriptions of the most common fraud and other scams
using such methods of communication.
(b) Commission Defined.--In this section, the term ``Commission''
means the Federal Trade Commission.
(c) Effective Date.--This section shall take effect on the date
that is 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce.
Llama 3.2 · runs locally in your browser
Ask anything about this bill. The AI reads the full text to answer.
Enter to send · Shift+Enter for new line