Do-not-call legislation passes congress, heads to White House

After a short block of the Federal Trade Commission's Do-Not-Call Registry authority by the federal district court, legislation introduced by Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens that would override the court's decision has passed through the Senate and, with a similar bill passed in the House, is now awaiting the President's signature.

"Americans are sick and tired of being harassed throughout the day and night by telemarketing companies because we have a telephone number," Stevens said. "The FTC had the right idea when they created the do-not-call list and I am happy to help ratify it."

Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes have voiced support of the do-not-call registry.

"Nearly 50,000 Alaskans have requested to be part of the national do-not-call registry," Renkes said. "We want to be able to protect Alaskans from unrequested sales pitches in their homes. This is an important consumer protection law…"

"People have the right to privacy, to decide they do not want to be hounded by telemarketers," Murkowski said. "To have a little quiet time at dinner is not too much to ask."

Senate Bill 1654 states that the FTC is authorized under the Telemarketing and Consumers Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act to compile and implement a national do-not-call registry. The bill also ratifies the existing do-not-call list created by the Telemarketing Sales Rule, which was promulgated by the FTC on March 31.

Nearly 51 million phone numbers have been posted to the FTC registry. By placing one's number on the do-not-call list, customers were requesting that national telemarketers cease phone calls to that number. If the legislation is signed, the FTC would be able to fine telemarketing companies $11,000 per call to numbers on the registry.