Friday, April 25th, 2008

Robocalls: You may have signed up for the "Do Not Call list" as I have so you don't get those annoying random sales calls at home. I was the lead co-sponsor of the California Do Not Call legislation when I was in the State Assembly (a copy of that bill signed by Governor Gray Davis is hanging on the wall in my office in DC). But now, here come those really annoying political "robocalls." These are recorded, automatically dialed calls to your house advocating one political position or candidate or another. They come at odd hours. They have the caller ID blocked so you don't know who's calling. They often say terrible things about a candidate without identifying who it is that is saying the terrible thing. I used them years ago when the technology was in its infancy. But now they have become so cheap that lots of abusers have entered the field.

So, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and I have introduced the Robocall Privacy Act to put some restrictions on this practice. This bill would impose significant sanctions on groups or individuals who: make political robocalls between the hours of 9 p.m. and 8 a.m.; make more than two political robocalls to the same number in the same day; fail to disclose the party responsible for the political robocall; or block caller identification information.

Now you may be saying, why not just ban them or make them subject to the Do Not Call list? Because political speech is protected under the First Amendment, there are constitutional issues if we go that far. This bill is a good start. I hope we can make this law this year before the campaigns begin in earnest in September.

In addition to this bill, I have personally pledged to do no robocalls at all in my campaign. I believe I am the first member of Congress to take such a pledge. I hope, and believe, there will be more.

Soon, it may be safe to answer the phone again.

Until next week, I remain respectfully,

Congressman John Campbell