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HOUSE VOTES TO RESTRICT CALLS BY TELEMARKETERS

(By Cindy Skrzycki)

The House of Representatives yesterday passed legislation to restrict telemarketers who dial some 38 million Americans every day with unsolicited commercial telephone calls, selling credit cards, aluminum siding, children's photographs and uncounted other products.

The bill, which passed by a voice vote, has to be reconciled with two initiatives approved by the Senate that also take aim primarily at auto- dialers, which are computers that spew prerecorded messages. Differences in the bills should be ironed out by the end of the week, said a staff member on the House telecommunications and finance subcommittee.

Once a compromise reaches the White House, however, its fate is less certain. The Bush administration has raised objections to taking away or regulating one of business's most potent and economical marketing tools.

Nevertheless, the issue of blocking unsolicited sales calls generated by humans, computerized machines or facsimile machines isn't likely to go away as millions of Americans find their dinner hours interrupted by telephone sales calls, sometimes from machines that refuse to free the line.

"When people get home from work, they deserve some peace and quiet," said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), sponsor of the House bill and chairman of the subcommittee on telecommunications and finance.

The House bill attempts to balance the privacy rights of individuals against the rights of businesses that may using telemarketing not to solicit but to reach customers to warn of an electrical power test or a delinquent loan.

The Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.), proposes to ban all computerized calls to the home unless the party consents to receiving them.

In contrast, Markey's bill would charge the Federal Communications Commission with coming up with a way to protect consumers from commercial solicitations.

The House bill does allow businesses with established relationships to call even if a name shows up on an industry "do-not-call list." Contact would stop if the consumer objected again to being called.

The House bill prescribes additional restrictions for auto-dialers: The machines would have to identify themselves and hang up as soon as possible. They would not be allowed to call emergency phone lines, or mobile or cellular phones.

Also, the House bill requires faxes used for advertising to include the identity and telephone number of the faxer. It also asks the FCC to include the identity and telephone number of the faxer. It also asks the FCC to consider banning "junk faxes."

The Hollings bill places an outright ban on unsolicited faxes unless there has been some prior consent from the consumer.

Under the Markey bill, the FCC would have about a year to explore the best way to protect the privacy of residential telephone subscribers, an approach that is also suggested by Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) in a bill that passed the Senate earlier this month.

Some of the alternatives the FCC might consider include a national electronic database of people who do not want to be called, the use of new telephone technology to block such calls, or special markings such as an asterisk in the telephone book.

Studies done by telephone companies and other organizations show that automated telemarketing, which has grown into an industry that generates $435 billion in sales, is a growing irritant to Americans who feel the telephone is invading their privacy.

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