Since 1991, mobile phone numbers have been excluded from telemarketers' lists, political campaigners, and other unwanted, unsolicited phone marketers. Now, there's a bill in the US House of Representatives to change all of that—one that opens the doors to a new era of political robocalling right to your mobile phone. Here's how to tell Congress that you want no part of it.


Photo by Marc Davis.

Why You Should Care

The "Mobile Informational Call Act" is an amendment to the Communications Act of 1934 and will allow political organizations, committees, and action groups to contact you on your mobile phone. The new bill, if passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by the President, would allow political organizations to use automated dialers and robocall-systems to dial your cell phone and hand you off to a live person or play automated messages asking you to contribute to political campaigns or take surveys.


The result, should the bill pass and become law, is that you'll be able to opt-out of specific campaigns and group calling lists, but political organizations that get your number through petitions, calling lists, or affiliated organizations will be able to call your mobile phone whenever they choose.

With the fall political campaign heating up and next year's campaign starting over a year early, that can add up to a lot of unsolicited phone calls from various campaigns and political action committees, all looking for your help or money. You can read more about the bill, including the text of the bill, here at PopVox.

G/O Media may get a commission Subscribe and Get Your First Bag Free Promo Code AtlasCoffeeDay20

What You Can Do About It

As always, the best thing to do is contact your congressional representatives and let them know that you oppose the bill and would like them to oppose the bill as well. The National Political Do Not Contact Registry (NPDNC) has a petition that you can sign to make your opposition to the bill known to your specific representatives.


The NPDNC is a non-partisan not-for-profit organization that's working to keep the bill from passage, and to advocate for voters. They point out that automated political calls simply don't work, and in addition to the petition, they also host privacy seminars and work with political candidates and political action committees to get them to add a more human touch to their campaign efforts.

Additionally, you can follow @EndTheRoboCalls on Twitter for more information about how you can make your opposition to the bill known to Congress.


Beyond signing the petition, standard rules for contacting your Congressional representatives apply: even if you sign the petition, you'll have the most success if you reach out to your specific representatives and senators with a personal message (the petition linked to above allows you to personalize the message you send for this purpose).

You'll likely get a form response, to which you should follow up with another personal message indicating that you received the form response and still have concerns that your voice hasn't been heard. Keep your notes brief and pointed, they're more likely to get the attention of a congressional staffer that way and actually get counted – or even better, get past that staffer and to your representative directly.


You can reach Alan Henry, the author of this post, at alan@lifehacker.com, or better yet, follow him on Twitter or Google+.



