Marsha Blackburn

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in support of H.R. 423, the Anti-Spoofing Act of 2017. Today we are considering a very worthy piece of legislation, which has been introduced in each of the last two Congresses by Vice Chairman Barton, Vice Chairman Lance, and Representative Meng. All of them have put a lot of hard work into this bill, and I thank each of them for their dedication in pursuing a much-needed update to the Truth In Caller ID Act. Spoofing is the act of altering the number that will appear on the receiving end of the caller ID. It is a trick that has been around for more than a decade. Spoofing provides a false identity to bad actors and criminals who seek to harass and defraud our hardworking taxpayers, oftentimes through various scams. Sometimes the scams are elaborate, and other times they are simple. But these schemes are all petty; and once carried out, they are criminal. Spoofing lets the bad guys disguise their identity and will often pose as official entities, such as credit card companies, hospitals, and government agencies to target their unsuspecting victims. These crooks regularly target seniors and use intimidation tactics to extract personal and financial information. The FCC has the authority to levy penalties and criminal fines against individuals that use fake caller ID information for the purpose of defrauding or harming another. However, current law only covers traditional voice calls. While this was considered a good fix when it was enacted in 2009, the Truth in Caller ID Act no longer sufficiently protects consumers. New communication methods and an evolving consumer trend towards text messaging have left the law with significant holes for the fraudsters to fly through and avoid prosecution. H.R. 423 would extend and clarify provisions of the Truth in Caller ID Act to include text messages and Voice over Internet Protocol services and would also apply the penalties to violators outside of the United States. The bill would also seek to make it more challenging for those using fake caller ID information. In the past, you needed to have advanced skills and expensive equipment in order to spoof. Nowadays, it isn't hard. All someone needs to have is a smartphone and access to any of the various apps on the market that can instantly generate a fake caller ID. This is another classic case where technology has outpaced the laws that govern it. We will never be able to legislate ahead of technology advancement, nor should we try to do so. But when we find areas where legislation can help shield our consumers and hold the bad guys accountable, it is incumbent on us to act. I believe that the legislation we are considering today is a good next step in our pursuit of stronger protection for our consumers. This bill will not prevent spoofing and it will not make our constituents invincible from the related scams and harassment, but what this bill does is important. By updating the law to more accurately reflect today's environment, we will be equipped to hold violators subject to the penalty of law. I urge all of my colleagues to support the bill. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material in the Record on the bill.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter), a new member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the committee report for this legislation from the last Congress. H.R. 423, Anti-Spoofing Act of 2017 background and need for legislation Spoofing is a practice in which a phone number shown on a phone or caller identification device is deliberately falsified, often to portray an official entity such as a government agency or credit card company, typically with malicious intent. Spoofing is a commonly used tool for a number of illegal practices, including phishing for personal information and swatting--calling in a fictitious crime in progress in order to generate a police response. The original Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009 prohibits spoofing voice caller identification. However, as communications methods and consumer habits continue to evolve, so too do the attempts by third parties to fraudulently gain personal information for criminal use. Many Americans are now relying on text messaging to stay connected, and this method of communication has become a target for spoofing in much the same way voice calls have been. H.R. 423 extends the provisions of the Truth in Caller ID Act to include text messaging as well as Voice over Internet Protocol services. The legislation, introduced by Rep. Barton, Rep. Lance, and Rep. Meng, also addresses the growth of services that allow users to knowingly transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification information by adding a definition of ``spoofing service'' to the Truth in Caller ID Act. In amending H.R. 423, the Committee significantly changed the definitions of ``text message'' and ``text messaging service.'' The changes are designed to exclude from these definitions those online messaging services that use traditional telephone numbers for the purpose of identifying a user's account, just as other online services may use an email address or username for a similar purpose. The excluded services do not use telephone numbers to interconnect with the public switched telephone network or enable communication with individuals who do not subscribe to the same messaging service. The Committee intends the Commission to devise its rules using the meanings set forth in the legislation. ``Short message service'' and ``multimedia message service'' should be narrowly interpreted consistent with current industry standards (see, e.g., ETSI, Technical Specification, 3GPP TS 23.040 version 12.2.0 Release 12, ETSI TS 123 040 v12.2.0 (Oct. 2014), available at www.etsi.org). The Committee takes notice of the fact that the language set forth in the version of H.R. 423, as ordered reported, is identical to the text relating to the same subject contained in S. 253, the Communications Act Update Act of 2016, as passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, on September 27, 2016. The House passed S. 253, as amended, by unanimous consent. The foregoing discussion should therefore serve as an explanation of that bill's provisions for purposes of legislative history. section-by-section analysis of the legislation Section 1. Short title This section provides that the Act may be cited as the ``Anti-Spoofing Act of 2017''. Section 2. Spoofing prevention This section amends the Communications Act to expand the Truth in Caller Act to include text messaging services, as well as communications from outside of the United States. This section defines the terms ``text message,'' ``text messaging service,'' and ``voice service.'' This section also requires the Commission, in coordination with the Federal Trade Commission, to develop consumer education materials regarding caller ID scams and technologies that can help consumers protect themselves against fraudulent activity. This section also requires a Government Accountability Office report on the actions taken by the Federal Communications Commission and FTC to combat caller ID fraud.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Lance).

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 290) to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to provide for greater transparency and efficiency in the procedures followed by the Federal Communications Commission, and for other purposes.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous materials into the Record on the bill.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I am pleased to support H.R. 290, a bill to reform the FCC, sponsored by the chair of the full Committee on Energy and Commerce. Mr. Speaker, this bill has a unique history. It has been passed out of the House not once or twice, but four times already in the last three Congresses. The last three times this bill has come to the floor, it has passed on suspension with full bipartisan support. That support speaks to the deep necessity for fundamental reform of the Federal Communications Commission. As Members of Congress, we hear from constituents whose applications at the FCC are left to languish unresolved while consumers and businesses let opportunities slip by because they haven't received approval yet from a Federal Government agency. It is even worse when the FCC, under its public interest mandate, decides to put its thumb on the scale in favor of one technology sector or another, often without providing reasonable evidence that its intervention is necessary and appropriate. While I have faith that Chairman Pai will bring about real reform at the FCC, without legislative changes, I am afraid that this type of jury-rigged rulemaking will return under a future administration. That is why I have supported this bill each time it has made its way through our committee and each time it has come to the House floor. I believe that strong process can restore the agency's integrity and rein it back in the interest of the stakeholders and the society that it should serve. The bill requires the FCC to conduct a notice and comment rulemaking in order to adopt clear rules to guide its own process. By giving the FCC flexibility when setting procedures and deadlines, we are not hamstringing the agency; rather, we are providing them with goals to meet and allowing them to determine the best way to meet those goals. We are asking the FCC to consider and adopt rules for itself that would provide clear deadlines on starting and stopping comments, clear deadlines for resolving petitions filed by the public, clear notice of status to those affected by petitions and rules, and clear schedules of statistical reports. The bill also requires the FCC to consider publication of Commission documents to be considered at an open meeting and to consider whether cost-benefit analysis just might improve their rulemakings. This legislation also changes the existing Sunshine Act to allow for greater collaboration between Commissioners. There was fine bipartisan work that went into these bills, and I thank my Democratic colleagues for working with us to improve the agency. This country is blessed with the most creative and competitive technology industry in the world. The agency charged with overseeing this robust and dynamic sector should be open and transparent and foster continued growth, and I believe this bill will help in achieving that goal. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. When disaster strikes, there is a lot of hard work to be done, and every second counts. First responders go into action for those that need help. Relief organizations and volunteers rush in to begin the process of cleaning up. Utilities and service providers must be on the ground repairing damaged infrastructure. All of these mission-critical tasks require a functioning communications network. People turn to the network for potentially lifesaving information and rely on its functionality to reach emergency services. We are here today to consider this bill. Representative Pallone--I want to give some credit to him--has been a champion of following the eye-opening effects of Superstorm Sandy. He has worked tirelessly on this legislation since October 2012. In total, the Sandy storm resulted in roughly $74 billion in damages in the U.S. alone. Sometimes we forget the magnitude of that storm. Damage to power and communications infrastructure, it knocked out about 25 percent of the cell sites in its path. In some of the hardest-hit counties, 50 percent of those sites were down. When the networks go down, public safety communications and emergency response services are threatened. In order for the networks to get back up and running, telecommunications providers need access to critical resources and permission to enter the disaster area. The chaos immediately following a major disaster makes it challenging to obtain resources and entry to the affected area. What we saw after Sandy were communication providers being turned away from the disaster area and denied resources because they were not considered essential to the recovery effort. This bill seeks to change that. In the wake of Sandy, and as a result of repair workers being barred from the recovery effort, communication networks remained offline for hours and, in some cases, days longer than need be. This left those who were still vulnerable in the disaster area without critical information and no means to call for help. There are numerous entities that are essential for the rescue and recovery phase following a disaster. The affected area needs power. Water is critical. The bill would clarify that communications networks are also an essential service. Whether it be wireline, mobile telephone, Internet, radio or television, communication services play a key role in facilitating recovery. In some cases it can be the difference between life and death. By defining these types of providers as essential, telecommunication companies will be granted the access and resources needed to get their networks back online. The bill would also require the FCC to conduct a study on the feasibility and benefits of making WiFi access points available to the general public to access 911 services during times of emergency. I would also like to recognize that the original version of this bill included a number of wireless provisions designed to increase preparedness. These provisions were removed, however, because the five largest wireless carriers voluntarily adopted these provisions. H.R. 588, in its current form, combined with the voluntary framework established by the wireless carriers, leaves us with a strong, bipartisan bill that will improve the resiliency of our Nation's communications infrastructure to avoid a recurrence of the widespread and extended service outages, as experienced in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. I thank our colleagues from the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure for working with us on this bill, and I urge the support of my colleagues for the legislation. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, there are coaches that have the exceptional ability to cultivate greatness within an athlete, a team, and school. They can help an athlete live up to his or her potential and challenge them to exceed every goal and expectation set before them. Today, I rise to honor Coach Barbara Campbell who has exemplified these traits and led her team to another State Championship this past fall. She has made a tremendous impact during her tenure coaching the Brentwood High School volleyball team in Brentwood, Tennessee. Barbara Campbell has been coaching at Brentwood High School since 1988. She has a record of over 1500 wins, twelve State Champions and seven state runner-ups. She has a reputation of creating well-rounded and hardworking athletes who have continued their volleyball careers beyond high school. She pushes each player to not only be motivated in athletics, but academics as well and fosters character development with student success. Brentwood High School is a powerful force in volleyball. These young athletes have made their mark in the world of high school athletics due to the talented persistence and drive of Coach Barbara Campbell. Now I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring Coach Campbell for the numerous successes and wins she has accomplished and for the investment she has made in the lives of our communities and young people.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 288) to ensure that small business providers of broadband Internet access service can devote resources to broadband deployment rather than compliance with cumbersome regulatory requirements.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 288, the Small Business Broadband Deployment Act. I am glad that the House is taking swift action on this bill, which would protect small Internet service providers from the enhanced disclosure requirements laid out in the 2015 Open Internet Order. After adopting the Open Internet Order, the FCC recognized the importance of exempting small ISPs from these enhanced transparency rules and subsequently granted a temporary exemption to broadband providers with fewer than 100,000 subscribers. However, the Commission failed to reach an agreement to grant another exemption before the deadline last December and, as a result, has left hundreds of our Nation's small providers vulnerable to cumbersome rules. FCC Commissioners Pai and O'Rielly have taken action, since the exemption expired, to reassure our small broadband providers that the rules will not be enforced until the situation has been addressed by the Commission, but Congress should go a step further and provide certainty to our Nation's small businesses and pass this bill. Rather than a 1-year exemption to the enhanced disclosure requirements, this bill would exempt for 5 years broadband providers with fewer than 250,000 subscribers from the enhanced reporting obligations, providing them with the regulatory certainty to invest in their business. At our hearing last January, we heard from multiple witnesses just how cumbersome and burdensome these rules are. One witness described the difference to be as significant as the need to hire regulatory counsel versus the ability to build another tower to provide service. For a small business in a capital-intensive industry, that could be the difference between getting more people connected to the Internet and going out of business. We cannot let our small businesses and hardworking taxpayers be saddled with more onerous rules and the costs that they bring. In addition to regulatory relief for small ISPs, the bill adds certainty for our Nation's small ISPs by extending the exemption for 5 years. It was disappointing to see the Commission fail to reach an agreement at the end of last year to extend the exemption, and it is why we are here today. Despite overwhelming bipartisan support from Congress and President Obama's Small Business Administration, negotiations fell short, and our Nation's smallest and most competitive Internet service providers were left to bear the burden. In today's 21st century economy, we need to do more to encourage connectivity, and this bill embodies that spirit. Congress is poised to provide the regulatory certainty small businesses are seeking in order to invest in stronger networks and foster a better consumer experience. I want to thank Chairman Walden and Mr. Loebsack for acting quickly to reintroduce this legislation, and I urge all of my colleagues to support the commonsense measure. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous materials in the Record on this bill.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I will just encourage my colleagues to join us in passing H.R. 288. As my colleague from California said, this is one of those commonsense measures. When you talk about removing the burden of regulatory overreach from our Nation's small business, and in this case, our small Internet service providers, this is something that will help get that job done. It is also something that will help extend Internet service to more Americans, and that is a goal that we all share. So at this time, in closing, I encourage passage of H.R. 288. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Walden), the chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce and the author of this legislation.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter), a new member of our committee, the Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot).

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, as we were home over the Christmas holiday break, so many calls that came into my office dealt with the ObamaCare issue--the rise in premiums, the lack of affordability. Here is one example. A 64-year-old man, his premiums $30,000, deductible $12,000--indeed, too expensive to afford and too expensive to use. But we do have a plan for repealing and replacing. You will find it at A Better Way. This will help lift the financial burden from many Americans who are currently facing high costs due to ObamaCare. Our plan allows patients greater access to affordable care and affordable insurance. Our next step includes my legislation, H.R. 314. It is the Health Care Choice Act of 2017. What it will do is allow greater access, more choice, and more options by allowing across-State-line purchasing of health insurance. You find the plan that is most suited to you and your family at a price that you can afford. It is time for us to repeal and replace with good patient-centered options.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the Speaker's table the bill (S. 3183) to prohibit the circumvention of control measures used by Internet ticket sellers to ensure equitable consumer access to tickets for any given event, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam Speaker, the select investigative panel was formed to investigate areas that, prior to the revelations of undercover journalists, received too little attention. For most of us, it is nothing short of an outrage that Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics supplement their budgets by selling the leftover parts of babies they have aborted. This Chamber charged the panel with investigating fetal tissue trafficking, second and third trimester abortion practices, the standard of care for infants who survive abortions, and the role our taxpayer dollars play in this sector of society. Over the last year, we have held hearings that explored the bioethics surrounding fetal tissue use, and that revealed the sobering reality of how fetal tissue is priced. Our investigation revealed four models by which the subjects of our investigation implicate serious public policy concerns. The first, the middleman model, comprises a middleman and tissue procurer that obtains tissue directly from a source such as an abortion clinic or hospital and then transfers the tissue to a customer, usually a university researcher. As the example of StemExpress illustrates, the procurement company would embed a lab technician inside an abortion clinic, where the technician would receive the day's orders for body parts at specified gestation periods, access patient files in violation of women's HIPAA privacy rights, and collect the tissue. Then the technician would receive pay and even bonuses based on the tissue she secured. A second model, the university clinic model, reveals the cozy relationship between abortion clinics and research institutions, most of them State universities funded by the taxpayers. The clinic provides the university the tissue used for research. The university adopts the clinic doctors as faculty members, giving them benefits regardless of whether they actually teach. And, in many cases, thanks to programs like the Ryan Fellowship, medical students are deployed to abortion clinics to be trained as the next generation of abortion providers. The panel's investigation into a third model, the late-term abortion clinic, revealed the appalling absence of mechanisms or procedures to safeguard those infants who survive the abortion procedure. Put bluntly, even though we have the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act and the prohibition of partial birth abortion on the books, they are not enforced. Fourth, the panel investigated the model by which Federal tax dollars make their way to abortion clinics, typically by Medicaid payments under title XIX, and fetal tissue researchers.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam Speaker, to provide just a snapshot of the 51 known external audits of Planned Parenthood clinics, nearly all found title XIX overpayments for family planning and reproductive health service claims. The overbilling totalled more than $8.5 million, and that is without counting several False Claims Act lawsuits that allege millions more in overbilling. Consider all that our panel has identified, despite having just barely a year--even less by the time we were fully staffed--to conduct the investigation. It is now up to us to build on the work, to hold the government accountable, and to stop these affronts to human dignity.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I congratulate Chairman Upton and all of our colleagues on the Energy and Commerce Committee for a job well done, and done in the appropriate manner. It really has, as Ms. DeGette said, been so interesting to work across the country and work with patients, with physicians, with researchers, with those who are innovating new concepts, who are delving into delivery systems that are necessary for precision medicine which underpins 21st century health care. There are three components that I want to bring attention to. First of all, section 3060 is there addressing medical technology and software. This is so important that we get the FDA on the right track and move components of this away so that it does not face FDA approval processes that will slow down access to the marketplace for patients. Also, section 2038, the Children's Count Act--Mrs. Capps and I worked on this--allowing children access to clinical trials, and section 3076, the reauthorization of the Reagan-Udall language. I congratulate my colleagues.