A few days after two Congressional Democrats announced plans to “soon introduce legislation to amend the [Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”)], fix the [Supreme] Court’s error, and protect consumers” more here, another Congressional joint statement, which included one of the same Democrat members, was more measured in terms of Congressional plans.

Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Congressman Mike Doyle (D-PA), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, and Congressman Bob Latta (R-OH), the Ranking Member on that Subcommittee, along with Senators John Thune (R-SD) and Edward Markey (D-MA), released the following bipartisan joint statement on April 8 “in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that unwanted text messages do not violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s protections against robocalls” (https://energycommerce.house.gov/newsroom/press-releases/bipartisan-congressional-leaders-respond-to-supreme-court-ruling-on-unwanted):

“The Supreme Court’s ruling removing text messages from the Telephone Consumer Protection Act may allow scammers to send out a barrage of texts or calls without fear of reprisal or consequence. As the principal leaders behind the passage of the TRACED Act, we will closely follow the impacts this ruling may have on consumers. We know the last thing Americans need right now is an onslaught of texts or calls from scammers trying to swindle them out of their hard-earned money.”

Mr. Pallone and Mr. Thune were of course the co-authors of the Pallone-Thune TRACED Act, which the Federal Communications Commission has spent the last year developing rules to implement. Senators Thune and Markey are both members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which has jurisdiction over legislation relating to the TCPA.