[Congressional Bills 109th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [H.R. 5126 Introduced in House (IH)] 109th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 5126 To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit manipulation of caller identification information, and for other purposes. _______________________________________________________________________ IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES April 6, 2006 Mr. Barton of Texas (for himself, Mr. Engel, Mr. Simmons, and Mr. Reichert) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce _______________________________________________________________________ A BILL To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit manipulation of caller identification information, 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 ``Truth in Caller ID Act of 2006''. SEC. 2. PROHIBITION REGARDING MANIPULATION OF CALLER IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION. Section 227 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227) is amended-- (1) by redesignating subsections (e), (f), and (g) as subsections (f), (g), and (h), respectively; and (2) by inserting after subsection (d) the following new subsection: ``(e) Prohibition on Provision of Inaccurate Caller Identification Information.-- ``(1) In general.--It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States, in connection with any telecommunications service or VOIP service, to cause any caller identification service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification information, unless such transmission is exempted pursuant to paragraph (3)(B). ``(2) Protection for blocking caller identification information.--Nothing in this subsection may be construed to prevent or restrict any person from blocking the capability of any caller identification service to transmit caller identification information. ``(3) Regulations.-- ``(A) In general.--Not later than 6 months after the enactment of this subsection, the Commission shall prescribe regulations to implement this subsection. ``(B) Exemption.--The regulations under this paragraph shall exempt from the prohibition under paragraph (1) transmissions in connection with authorized activities of law enforcement agencies. ``(4) Definitions.--For purposes of this subsection: ``(A) Caller identification information.--The term `caller identification information' means information provided by a caller identification service regarding the telephone number of, or other information regarding the origination of, a call made using a telecommunications service or VOIP service. ``(B) Caller identification service.--The term `caller identification service' means any service or device designed to provide the user of the service or device with the telephone number of, or other information regarding the origination of, a call made using a telecommunications service or VOIP service. Such term includes automatic number identification services. ``(C) VOIP service.--The term `VOIP service' means a service that-- ``(i) provides real-time 2-way voice communications transmitted through customer premises equipment using TCP/IP protocol, or a successor protocol (including when the voice communication is converted to or from TCP/IP protocol by the VOIP service provider and transmitted to the subscriber without use of circuit switching), for a fee; ``(ii) is offered to the public, or such classes of users as to be effectively available to the public (whether part of a bundle of services or separately); and ``(iii) has the capability to originate traffic to, and terminate traffic from, the public switched telephone network. ``(5) Limitation.--Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, subsection (f) shall not apply to this subsection or to the regulations under this subsection.''. <all>