Senator Richard Blumenthal is touting House passage of bipartisan legislation to help block robocalls. 

The legislation gives regulators more time to find robocall scammers, increases penalties for violators, promotes call authentication and blocking adoption.  The measure is also aimed at addressing obstacles to criminal prosecution of robocallers who intentionally flout laws.  Blumenthal says he will work for swift strong Senate action to approve the bill. 

Blumenthal has also authored the ROBOCOP (Repeated Objectionable Bothering of Consumers on Phones) Act, which would require telephone companies to offer free robocall blocking services to all their customers. 

An estimated 22.1 million Americans lost $9.5 billion to robocall scams in 2016, according to a 2017 study. This epidemic of telephonic harassment skyrocketed in 2018, with the number of robocalls made to Americans exceeding 16.3 billion in the first five months of that year. Thus far efforts like the Do Not Call Registry have had little to no impact, particularly when it comes to scams and call centers located outside of the United States.