U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ), vice chair of the House Communications and Technology Subcommittee, praised the House passage on Monday of bipartisan consumer protection legislation he helped author that would prohibit caller ID fraud.
The Anti-Spoofing Act, H.R. 423, outlaws the practice where criminals disguise their phone numbers to make it appear that they are calling from a government agency in the hopes of tricking victims into giving out personal or financial information.
“Too often Americans are victims of spoofing, where criminals call and claim to be members of the police or the IRS or some other governmental entity and they take advantage of veterans, senior citizens, and all sorts of Americans,” Lance said in an interview with The Ripon Advance. “It has passed the House before but we have to get it passed in the Senate, and I am hopeful that will happen this year and that it will reach the president’s desk.”
Lance joined U.S. Reps. Grace Meng (D-NY) and Joe Barton (R-TX) in authoring the legislation that would strengthen the Communications Act of 1934 to combat the telephone scam. It would also cover text messages and calls that originate in foreign countries.
The legislation earned support from the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office in New Jersey, which had reported that scammers had impersonated the sheriff’s office to try to steal from residents.
Lance was recently appointed vice chair of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology under the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The subcommittee has jurisdiction over electronic communications, the Federal Communications Commission and also regulations that impact New Jersey’s many telecommunications companies.
With the FCC in his sights, Lance commended President Donald Trump’s selection this week of Ajit Pai as chairman of the FCC. Pai previously served as the senior Republican commissioner at the FCC.
“The committee and the subcommittee worked extremely well with him and I’m very pleased that the president has designated him the chairman of the FCC,” Lance said.
The priorities of Lance and Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chair Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) are focused on ensuring that the U.S. statutory framework is consistent with new technologies that will continue to advance in America.
Lance, along with House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) and other Republican members of the committee, have opposed allowing the federal government to regulate and tax the internet.
“We want as free and open an internet as possible and we do not want overregulation from the federal agency that is involved with this, the FCC,” he said.
There has been a debate within the FCC on whether it has the power to engage in certain rulemaking that occurred under the Obama administration.
Republicans have signaled they will try to reverse the classification of broadband internet as a more heavily regulated telecommunications service under communications law. The rationale for that measure was upheld by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals last year.
“I would like to see that case go to the Supreme Court because I believe that there has been an overreach by the FCC in recent times,” Lance said.
Lance continues to serve as a senior member of the Health Subcommittee as well as the Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection.
Reforming Obamacare will be the principle work of the health subcommittee this year, he said, where Republicans want to ensure that a replacement health care plan is in place before a repeal occurs.
“It needs significant revision but I don’t want to go back to a place where there was denial of coverage based on a pre-existing condition,” Lance said. “I like the fact that people can stay on their parents’ policies until they are 26. There are provisions that will continue to exist in the statutory framework. However, I have had constituents who have had their premiums increase dramatically and have changed plans because they were unable to keep their medical doctor.”
Lance said his home state of New Jersey stands to benefit from a Trump presidency if the administration concentrates on lifting the economy and lowering taxes. New Jersey residents pay a higher percentage of taxes than nearly any other state.
Lower corporate and individual tax rates would spur greater economic activity, and Lance said he was hopeful that an economic expansion would help the middle class over the next four years.
“I think that was the principle message of the election as to why President Trump won, particularly in critical states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa. It was due to the fact that millions of middle class Americans have not really gained over the course of the economic policies of the last eight years,” he said.