H.R. 3670, the "Anti-Spoofing Act of 2013"

Caller ID is a service used by many Americans to identify telephone callers.  Using a practice known as “spoofing,” callers can deliberately falsify the telephone number and name relayed as the caller ID information to disguise the identity of the calling party.

In December 2010, President Obama signed into law the Truth in Caller ID Act, which gave the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) the authority to prohibit any person or entity from transmitting misleading or inaccurate caller ID information with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully obtain anything of value.  In June 2011, pursuant to a requirement in the Truth in Caller ID Act, the FCC issued a report to Congress with recommendations on how to improve the law, which included broadening the scope of the law to prohibit caller ID spoofing directed at people in the United States by persons outside the United States and providing further guidance on interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services.  The report also recommended adding text messaging to the list of services covered by the law and requiring legitimate third-party spoofing providers to take steps to verify that their users, such as law enforcement or a women’s shelter, are informed of applicable federal or state laws.

On December 6, 2013, Reps. Meng, Barton, and Lance introduced H.R. 3670, the Anti-Spoofing Act of 2013.  H.R. 3670 incorporates several of the FCC’s 2011 recommendations. 

On July 21, 2014, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) released new draft language of H.R. 3670, in the form of an amendment in the nature of a substitute.  The substitute amendment prohibits spoofing by callers outside the U.S. and expands the scope of existing anti-spoofing law to cover new forms of VoIP, as well as text messaging services.  On July 30, 2014, the Committee on Energy and Commerce voted to report the bill, as amended, by voice vote.

On September 9, 2014, the House passed H.R. 3670 under suspension of the rules by voice vote.