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Mr. President, last week the Senate passed S. 1410, the Telephone Advertising Consumer Rights Act. I introduced this legislation in response to the national outcry over the explosion of unsolicited telephone advertising. Many consumers in my home State of South Dakota are simply tired of the nuisance of unwanted telephone solicitations. New technologies when combined with the telephone now give modern door-to-door salesmen an unrestricted ability to invade the privacy of our homes at any time. It is time we liberated Americans from obnoxious phone calls.

Unlike other communications media, the telephone commands our instant attention. Junk mail can be thrown away. Television commercials can be turned off. The telephone demands to be answered.

People are increasingly upset over this invasion of their privacy by unrestricted telemarketing. In fact, the consumer backlash that has arisen from the cost and the interference of unsolicited telemarketing calls has sparked the introduction of over 1,000 bills in State legislatures around the country seeking to limit this abuse. We have heard the complaints of consumers.

This past June, we held hearings in the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on S. 1410. During these hearings, we received testimony from consumer advocates, private citizens, and representatives of the telemarketing industry. The testimony we received was clear. The Federal Government needs to act now to provide uniform legislation to protect consumers.

The primary purpose of this legislation is to develop the necessary ground rules for cost-effective protection of consumers from unwanted telephone solicitations. These rules should allow responsible telemarketers to reach consumers who are most responsive to this form of solicitation, while eliminating the cost and time of contacting those individuals who would be least responsive.

To accomplish this balanced approach, the Senate has passed legislation that directs the FCC to prescribe regulations to protect the privacy rights of consumers from the intrusion of unsolicited telephone marketing calls.

One such proposal the FCC would consider is the use of a telephone electronic database that would allow consumers to have their phone numbers protected from unsolicited advertising. This type of consumer protection has already been used with great success in the State of Florida. Another proposal the FCC would examine is the placement of all telemarketers on a single exchange, thus allowing consumers to block calls from that exchange.

Some objected to the original legislation because of the extent to which it outlined the safeguards necessary for the creation of a national database. It is important to note that this substitute bill does not mandate the creation of an electronic database. Rather, it gives the FCC flexibility in deciding the best approach to handling this problem. Personally, and in the eyes of many others, it appears that an electronic database clearly offers the most promising protection for consumers. However, we recognize that newer technologies may arise in the future. For this reason, the Senate legislation directs the FCC to consider a number of alternatives.

The purpose of this legislation is to prohibit cold calls by any telemarketer to the telephone of a consumer who has no connection or affiliation with that business. Responsible telemarketers have told me that they will save both time and money by contacting only people who are most likely to respond positively to such solicitations.

S. 1410 also addresses problems arising from computerized calls. Due to advances in auto-dialer technology, machines can be programmed to deliver a prerecorded message to thousands of sequential phone numbers. This results in calls to hospitals, emergency care providers, unlisted numbers, and paging and cellular equipment.

There have been many instances of auto-dial machines hitting hospital switchboards and sequentially delivering a recorded message to all telephone lines. In some cases, the calling machine does not release the called party's line until the recorded message has ended. This renders the called party's phones inoperable. in an emergency situation, this can create a real hazard.

To remedy this situation, the Senate legislation requires auto-dialer machines to release the phone line automatically after the called party hangs up. In addition, it requires all prerecorded messages to clearly identify the name, phone number or address of the person or business initiating the call.

This bill also allows hospitals, police stations, fire stations, and owners of paging and cellular equipment to eliminate all unsolicited calls.

The growth of facsimile machines in the workplace has brought another form of unsolicited advertising-the junk fax. Unsolicited facsimile advertising ties up fax machines and uses the called party's fax paper. This costs the recipient both time and money. The Senate bill requires that auto-dial fax machines clearly mark on all transmissions the date and time of transmission, the identify of the sender, and the telephone number of the sending machine.

While our legislation will not end all unsolicited calls, it will allow consumers to choose how their telephones are used and requires vendors to respect that decision. The balanced approach taken by the Senate, should ensure a robust telemarketing industry while giving consumers relief from unwanted telephone solicitations.

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