Federal Deception Law: 6.3.7 Special Rules for Calls to Collect Debts Owed to or Guaranteed by the United States (Struck Down as Unconstitutional)
On November 2, 2015, the TCPA was amended by an appropriations bill (“the Budget Act”) to exempt calls “made solely pursuant to the collection of a debt owed to or guaranteed by the United States” from the prohibition against making autodialed or prerecorded calls to cell phones without the consent of the called party.613 A parallel provision created a similar exemption from the statute’s restrictions on prerecorded calls to residential lines.614 The Budget Act also gave the FCC the authority to