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As a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, I have
heard from too many Mainers and Americans who are
tired of their basic privacy being violated by
intrusive calls, e-mails, and faxes. Congress has
acted to can the e-mail spam, and created a national
do not call list, but the area of communications
harassment that has yet to be dealt with is blast
faxes. But it must be dealt with to protect not only
our privacy, but help our small business community
as our economy continues to recover. That is why I
introduced the Junk Fax Prevention Act because more
must be done to stop these unsolicited faxes, which
have been illegal since 1991.
Small businesses have weathered the storm of the
economic downturn over the past several years. As
our economy now climbs out of recession and people
return back to work, American businesses–our
nation's employers–do not need these unnecessary
economic restraints to further hinder their
recovery. This legislation, which must be acted on
quickly by Congress, takes a balanced approach by
protecting the consumer while helping our business
community by strengthening and protecting consumers
and businesses from receiving unwanted commercial
advertisements by facsimile, while preserving a key
communications tool for doing business.
The Federal Communications Committee (FCC), which
enforces the ban on unsolicited faxes, has long
recognized an exception when the parties sending and
receiving the fax have an established business
relationship. Inexplicably, on June 26, 2003 the FCC
issued a new rule that eliminated this established
business relationship. Under this new rule–which is
set to take effect on January 1, 2005–the sender of
a fax would have to acquire, in writing, the
permission of the recipient to receive an
"unsolicited" fax before the fax could be sent.
As Chair of the Senate Small Business Committee,
I can state that the business community has in
unison called upon Congress to take action to
rectify this situation. Industry groups estimate
that it will cost businesses an average of $5,000
just in the first year to comply with the new law,
and as much as $3,000 each year thereafter in
record-keeping costs. These numbers do not take into
account the potential lost business that could
easily result if a primary method of
business-to-business communication is cut off. Quite
simply, small businesses in particular will suffer
significantly if these rules are allowed to take
effect.
My legislation restores the established business
relationship exemption, allowing standard business
transactions to continue uninhibited. It also
strengthens the protections available to fax
recipients by adding an opt-out provision that
currently does not exist: even if an established
business relationship exists, a fax subscriber can
still request to not receive unsolicited faxes, and
the senders of these faxes must include this
notification on every fax they send.
It is my firm belief that those who engage in
"blast faxes" can and should be prosecuted to the
full extent of the law, as their behavior imposes
unreasonable expenses upon residential and business
facsimile subscribers. And as a strong supporter of
consumer rights, I also want to make clear that this
bill does not in any way place consumers at risk.
Very few consumers own fax machines, and those who
do are protected by the general ban on solicitation
and the opt-out provision if they do have an
existing business relationship.
Privacy protections are being demanded by the
American people. The will of our fellow citizens
must be acted on that’s why Congress must
aggressively confront the latest junk phenomenon by
stopping these unwanted, unsolicited junk faxes as
soon as possible.
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