Ben Ray Luján, who represents the northern half of New Mexico, said that towns in his district were hundreds of miles apart, making the tele-town hall the most effective way to hear his constituents’ views. Sending out letters to hundreds of thousands of constituents to ask if they’d be willing to take calls is unrealistic, he said: “I hope we can look at this to see how we can address this.”

In announcing the reinterpretation last month, Wheeler said that the agency was responding to what has become its No. 1 consumer complaint: unwanted robocalls and texts. Last year alone, the agency received 215,000 such complaints, he said: “These rulings have a simple concept: you are the decision maker, not the callers.”

The new interpretation also says that phone providers can offer consumers call blocking technology that detects robocalls and blocks them before a consumer’s phone rings. Phone companies have long worried they could be fined by the FCC for not putting all calls through.