[IP] Lawmakers move to rescind junk fax rules (AP)
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From: David Lesher <wb8foz@xxxxxxx>
Date: June 16, 2004 8:10:57 AM EDT
To: farber@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (David Farber)
Subject: Lawmakers move to rescind junk fax rules (AP)
Reply-To: wb8foz@xxxxxxx
(and in an election year!....)
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Lawmakers move to rescind junk fax rules
WASHINGTON (AP) - Key House members on telecommunications issues
are moving to overturn regulations aimed at preventing offices
and homes from becoming inundated with junk faxes even before
the already delayed rules take effect.
The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce telecommunications
subcommittee, Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., said he planned to
introduce a bill Wednesday to rescind Federal Communications
Commission regulations requiring senders of commercial faxes to
get prior written approval from recipients.
At a hearing Tuesday, Upton called his proposed bill ``common-sense
regulatory relief'' for businesses and associations that would
be burdened with cumbersome paperwork once the FCC regulations
took effect. The bill was endorsed by the full committee's senior
Democrat, Rep. John Dingell of Michigan.
The FCC rules were originally scheduled to take effect last
August but were delayed until January 2005 amid an outcry from
some businesses. The fax regulations were approved at the same
time as the national ``do-not-call'' registry, which protects
consumers who sign up from unwanted telemarketing calls.
K. Dane Snowden, chief of the FCC's Consumer and Governmental
Affairs Bureau, said the agency continues to review its fax rules.
``The record we compiled indicated that many individuals and
businesses are, in fact, inundated with unsolicited faxes''
despite their efforts to be removed from the senders' fax lists,
Snowden told the subcommittee.
``In addition to the cost of paper and toner associated with
receiving faxes, consumers and businesses -- both large and small
-- are burdened by the time spent reading and disposing of faxes,''
he added.
Upton, however, cited an estimate by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
that small businesses would have to spend at least $5,000 in the
first year to comply with the FCC rules and more than $3,000 each
year thereafter.
He said his bill would still protect consumers through a provision
that would require senders of commercial faxes to prominently
include ``opt-out'' instructions for recipients who no longer
wish to receive them.
Cheryl Kaechele, testifying on behalf of the National Newspaper
Association, said the FCC regulations would block a vital source of
communications necessary to sustain newspaper advertising revenues.
``Our typical customers are small businesses,'' said Kaechele,
publisher of the Allegan County News in Allegan, Mich. ``They
would far prefer to have us send them information by fax than
to spend their precious minutes on the telephone or in personal
sales calls.''
Walt McDonald, president of the National Association of Realtors,
said the inconvenience of requiring written permission from
potential clients before sending a fax ``would be a giant step
backwards in a business where good customer service depends on
quick turnaround.''
The 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act prohibited
the dissemination of ``unsolicited advertisements'' to fax
machines. Under an existing interpretation of the law, written
permission for unsolicited faxes is not required if the recipients
already do business with the organization sending the fax.
Susan Grant, vice president for public policy at the National
Consumers League, said getting prior approval from recipients
before sending them commercial faxes is one of the strongest
privacy measures consumer groups have won in recent years. ``It's
not surprising that it's being attacked and rolled back,''
she said.
© 2004 MercuryNews.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
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