WASHINGTON—CUNA is contending that the FCC’s rule implementing the Budget Act has “fatal flaws.”
In a comment letter to the FCC in response to the agency’s Petition for Reconsideration for the August 2016 Report and Order Implementing the Budget Act—which provides exemptions from the TCPA for debts owed to or guaranteed by the federal government—CUNA stated that the “fatal flaws in the FCC’s rule implementing the Budget Act mirror the fatal flaws of the July 2015 TCPA Order on a broader scale as it applies to all businesses and financial institutions communicating with consumers on their cell phones.”
“Regrettably, the FCC’s interpretation of this law in its rule has many of the same problems of its July 2015 TCPA Order, which shows a fundamental lack of understanding of the need to communicate with consumers in a timely and efficient manner,” wrote Leah Dempsey, senior director of advocacy and counsel. “The limit on the number of calls in its rule frustrates the intent of Congress in passing the changes in the Budget Act. Specifically, limiting the exemption to include only three calls per month does little to improve communications with consumers, as does unnecessarily impede the ability to call reassigned numbers.”
CUNA urged the FCC to reconsider the following in its rule:
- Allow the exemption to cover more than three calls per month.
- Allow the exemption to cover calls that reach a reassigned number beyond a one-call safe harbor.
- Clarify that federally guaranteed mortgage debt and small business administration loans are included in the exemption.