Vote the presiding officer on this vote, the yeas are 71, the nays are 21. Threefifths of the senators duly chosen having voted in the affirmative, the motion is agreed to. Mr. Leahy mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from vermont. Mr. Leahy mr. President , i think were waiting for somebody on the other side. Ill yield, but i want to thank everybody for joining senator shelby and i on this vote. Its going to help us move forward, where i noted, as i said earlier in my remarks, republicans and democrats came together and worked extraordinarily hard on these appropriations bills. It shows what can be done when we do that. I think the vote here is an indication that if nobody is seeking recognition, i will suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Thune mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from south dakota. Mr. Thune i understand the national . A quorum call. The presiding officer it is. Mr. Thune i would ask it be lifted. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Thune mr. President , today the senate is taking the final step to send muchneeded legislation to protect consumers from robocalls to the president s desk. I think we had hoped this would be able to be packaged with a couple of other bills coming out of the commerce bill. I think the chairman of that committee, senator wicker, will address those later. Data mapping bill, Security Communications bill that deals with ensuring that we protect our technology from harmful elements, huawei and those sorts of things. Today we want to proceed with the robocall bill, and i will just start by saying that robocalls flooded americans phones to the point that many dont want to answer. A poll found 47 of calls americans received are actually answered. This means consumers arent answering legitimate calls that could be alerting you of fraud on your crashed, notifying you on your credit card, noiferg you that your flight has been canceled, all calls that are important to consumers. It is clear that no one is immune to these annoying and potentially dangerous calls. Scammers use these calls to successfully prey on vulnerable populations especially elderly americans, and they target the kind of personal information that can be used to steal your money or your identity. And when scammers are successful, the consequences for their victims can be devastating. While there are laws and fines in place now to prevent scam artists on preying on americans through the telephones these measures have been insufficient. When i served as chairman of the Commerce Committee. The presiding officer the senate will be in order. Mr. Thune thank you, mr. President. When i served as chairman of the Commerce Committee i subpoenaed the mass robe caller abromovich to testify about his situation. On to have of this, the federal communication enforcement efforts are hampered by a tight time commission. I introduced legislation before us today, the telephone robocall abuse criminal enforcement and deterrence act or the traced act with senator markey. The traced act provides tools to discourage Illegal Robocalls, protect consumers and crack down on offenders. It expands the window in which the f. C. C. Can pursue intentional scammers and levy fines from one year to four years. The legislation also requires Telephone Service providers to adopt call verification technologies that would help prevent Illegal Robocalls from reaching consumers in the first place. The traced act also recognizes the importance of legitimate calls and ensures important calls like emergency Public Safety calls are not wrongly blocked. And importantly, it convenes a working group of representatives from the department of justice, the f. C. C. , the federal trade commission, the department of commerce, the Consumer Financial protection bureau, state attorneys general and others to identify ways to criminally prosecute illegal robecalling. Traced addresses the issue of socalled one ring scams where International Scammers try to get individuals to return their calls so they can charge them exorbitant fees and it directs the federal Communications Commission to convene a working group to address the problem of Illegal Robocalls being made to hospitals. Im very pleased that the traced act received bipartisan support in both houses of congress and im especially grateful to senator markey for partnering with me on this legislation and i appreciate chairman wicker and Ranking Member cantwell for quickly advancing this legislation through the Commerce Committee this year. I also appreciate the work of our house colleagues, representatives palone, and data for their work in the house. Im pleased this bill attracted tremendous support from state governments, industry and consumer groups. While the traced act wont prevent all illegal robocalling, its a big step in the right direction. As the Washington PostEditorial Board stated the traced act, and i quote, is what good oldfashioned ledges legislating looks like. Today im excited the senate will be sending the traced act to the president s desk. Before i close id like to thank Staff Members whose efforts helped get us here today. In my office i appreciate the work of alex sochin, lauren greenwood, Jessica Mcbride and nick rossi. Id like to extend thanks to dan bald, john keist who worked tirelessly to help develop and advance this legislation. As i mentioned before, i appreciate the great work of senator markey, his partnership on this bill, and i want to thank the work of daniel green, joy winder and Bennett Butler on his staff. This truly was, mr. President , a team effort. So i thank you. I look forward to the president s signature on the traced act in the near future and hope that as this bill gets implemented that it will once again be safe to answer your phone in this country. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from massachusetts. Mr. Markey thank you, mr. President. This is a big day for our consumers in the United States, and i want to begin first by thanking my friend, senator thune, for his tremendous partnership on this legislation and the issue that we are discussing today robocalls. And thats because there are no blue robocalls. There are no red robocalls. There are only despised robocalls. That is what is bringing this Chamber Together today. And so i thank senator thune for his great leadership. I thank senator wicker and senator cantwell for helping us to navigate this political pathway. Today is a big day. The daily deluge of robocalls that americans experience is more than a nuisance in 2019. It is a Consumer Protection crisis. And so today the United States senate is sending americans a holiday gift on everyones list, stopping the playing of robocalls. Americans across the country face an epidemic of illegal and fraudulent robocalls bombarding their phones. And while their telephones were once a reliable means of communications, they have been turned against us. There are now mechanisms for scammers and fraudsters who wish to cheat and to defraud. The numbers are staggering. In 2019 consumers have received an estimated 54 billion robocalls, and thats 6 billion more than 2018, and we still have two more weeks to go. The year isnt even over. In november alone an estimated five billion robocalls were made to americans. Thats 167 million robocalls per day. Thats seven million robocalls an hour. Thats 2,000 every second in our country. In the time it takes me to make these remarks, 10,000 robocalls will have been placed across this country. In 2019 already almost 600 million robocalls have been placed to my constituents in massachusetts. Enough is enough. The reality is that we no longer have confidence in our phones. Our phones have become tools for fraud, for scams, for harassment mechanisms by which those with bad intent can access our homes, our purses, or even our pockets at any time. Caller i. D. Is not trusted. Important calls go unanswered. Innocent americans are defrauded. Our seniors in particular are targeted. Years ago scammers needed expensive, sophisticated equipment to robocall and robotext consumers en masse. Today they just need a smartphone to target thousands of phones an hour at relatively little expense and readily Available Software permits them to spoof their numbers, which means their true caller i. D. Is in fact concealed from the person picking up the phone. These new technologies allow illegal robocallers to conduct fraud anonomously both depriving federal regulators and consumers the ability to identify and to punish the culprit. Today the United States senate is putting robocall relief in sight, and i have been proud again to partner with senator thune on the telephone robocall abuse criminal enforcement and deterrence act or traced act for short. We introduced it earlier this year, and today is a culmination of that work in partnership with the house of representatives. Stopping robocalls requires a simple formula which we have included in the traced act. One, authentication. Two, blocking. Three, enforcement. First, this bill requires carriers to adopt Call Authentication technologies so they can verify that incoming calls are legitimate before they reach consumers phones. This will be mandatory for phone carriers. Second, the federal Communications Commission will require phone companies to block unverified calls at no charge to consumers. And, third, we will increase from one year to four years the time for the federal Communications Commission to pursue penalties for robocallers that intentionally violate the rules. This is a recipe for success, and that is what our traced act does. And at the same time this bill also ensures that emergency Public Safety calls still go through. The bill we will vote on today has enormous support across the country. 54 state and territory attorneys general all commissioners at the federal Communications Commission and the federal trade commission, major industry associations, and leading consumer groups endorse the legislation and agree that the traced act is an essential weapon in combatting the rice of illegal fraudulent rise of illegal fraudulent robocalls. This is a political haleys comet, something we can all gather around and learn from. The robocalls we receive every day are neither democrat nor republican. They are a universal menace. They impact the elderly, the young, the Small Business owner, and the student. Our grandparents and neighbors, our teachers and our coworkers today. No one is spared from this Consumer Protection pandemic. Senator thune and my efforts would not have been possible without the great work of groups like the National Consumer law center, aarp, consumer reports, Consumer Federation of america, consumer action, the National Association of attorneys general, u. S. Telecom , ctia, ntca, and so many more groups. These groups join the chorus of countless americans who raised their voices and called on congress to pass this bipartisan commonsense legislation, and we thank you. And so, what i would like to do as well, as senator thune, is to thank my staff joey with winder, sitting on the floor with me now and Bennett Butler over my shoulder and daniel green who worked on it. Alex sachin, daniel ball, owe owe olivia trusty, all partnered to make today possible. So and i just want to say that again. We cant thank alex sachin enough for all the work that was done. So i thank you, senator thune, and i thank the entire senate for their support for this legislation and i yield back. Mr. Thune i appreciate the senator from massachusetts. He and his staff were helpful in working on this. Its nice when we have an opportunity to work in a bipartisan way on something this meaningful in peoples lives. This has a tremendous impact on the daily lives of americans who are bombarded in many cases not just with annoying and nuisance calls but also with calls that are very predatory and particularly when it comes to some of our vulnerable populations. Mr. President , i have a unanimous consent request i need to get in here. I would ask consent that this be separate from the discussion that were now having. But i would ask unanimous consent that at 12 10 today the postcloture time on the motion to concur in the house amendment to the Senate Amendment to h. R. 1865 expire, that the other pending motions and amendments be withdrawn, and senator enzi or his designee be recognized to raise a point of order followed by senator shelby or his designee to make a motion to waive a point of order. If the motion to waive is agreed to the senate vote on a motion to concur on the house amendment to the Senate Amendment with no intervening action or debate. The presiding officer is there objection . Mr. Enzi mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from wyoming. Mr. Enzi reserving the right to object, does that mean that i wont get to give the comments before we vote . There has to be some comments about the point of order. And looking at the clock and the number of people waiting, it looks like im being cut out of that time. Would that be a correct interpretation . Mr. Thune i guess my view would be that the gentleman from wyoming wants to explain his point of order, i suspect i dont think there would be any objection to allowing him to do that. Mr. Enzi then i have no objection. The presiding officer is there objection . Without objection. Mr. Thune mr. President , notwithstanding rule 22 i ask the chair to lay before the senate the message to accompany s. 151. The presiding officer the chair lays before the senate the following message from the house of representatives. The clerk resolved, an act to deter criminal robocall violations and and so forth andr other purposes do pass with an amendment. Mr. Thune mr. President , i move to concur in the house amendment and i know of no further debate on the motion. The presiding officer is there further debate on the motion to concur . If not, all in favor say aye. Opposed, say no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The motion is agreed to. Mr. Thune mr. President , i ask unanimous consent the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Thune thank you, mr. President. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer i recognize the senator from mississippi. Mr. Wicker mr. President , time is fleeting. The distinguished republican whip is correct. We had hoped that the robocall bill could be included in the unanimous consent with two other very important pieces of legislation, one being the broadband data act, s. 1822, which is designed to tell the f. C. C. , go back, get the maps right, show us where we have coverage and where we do not have coverage, and we are making great progress with that. I do believe well get that bill passed in just a moment. The other issue being being the the huawei Data Security act, and i understand were going to have some trouble with that. Let me talk briefly before i make my unanimous consent request. China is up to no good with their governmentcontrolled Companies Huawei and z. T. E. They are required by chinese law to do the bidding of the Chinese Communist dictatorship and that means using their equipment to spy on americans. This is an undisputed act and it is recognized not only by americans but also by other countries, our allies who are taking steps to protect themselves, japan, australia, new zealand, they have begun the process of removing this dangery z. T. E. And huawei equipment from their networks. We had legislation that we thought was going to be included in this threebill package, h. R. 4998 to authorize this in the United States. Earlier this year the president signed an executive order declaring a National Emergency. And i agree with the president. A National Emergency because of the dangerous effects of keeping chinese equipment in our nations critical infrastructure. Given these threats we have an opportunity today to remove this huawei and z. T. E. Equipment from american Telecommunication Networks so we can protect americans. Were going to have some trouble with that on a unanimous consent. I think with the broadband data we will not, and so at this pointer, madam president , i first dealing with the broadband data act. Notwithstanding rule 22, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 328, s. 1822. The presiding officer the clerk will report. The clerk calendar number 328, s. 1822, a bill to require the federal Communications Commission to issue rules relating to the collection of data and so forth and for other purposes. The presiding officer is there objection to proceeding to the measure . Without objection. Mr. Wicker and then, madam president , i ask unanimous consent that the Committee Amendment be withdrawn, the wicker substitute amendment at the desk be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. The presiding officer is there objection . Without objection. Mr. W