The Stopping Bad Robocalls Act requires carriers to authenticate every call and to offer opt-out blocking for free. To make that possible, it also supports the rapid implementation of call authentication technologies. The FCC will have to adopt critical consumer protections and to report its efforts against illegal callers to Congress if the bill becomes a law. It will also give the FCC up to four years to catch illegal robocall operators. Finally, it will establish a Hospital Robocall Protection Group to protect the healthcare system from illegal robocalls.

The final bill will likely look a bit different after the Senate and the House get together to discuss their respective versions. Even so, this is a huge step forward to ban illegal robocalls, which continues to become an increasingly problematic issue.

The Stopping Bad Robocalls Act leaders said in a statement: