Remember talk last December of making the federal do-not-call list permanent (as in, not requiring reregistration every five years?)
Congress, acting with all the speed of a giant tortoise, has acted. Quoting the AP:
Politicians have finally found an issue they all can agree on: Telemarketers calling at dinnertime are a scourge that must be repulsed. Congress on Wednesday sent to President Bush two bills that would make permanent a program to protect consumers from unwanted phone calls from telemarketers. Its hallmark is the national “do not call” list.[...]
Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, put it in political terms: “With a 10 percent approval rating it is incumbent upon us to continue to pass legislation that is indeed popular.”[...]
The Senate later approved by a voice vote and sent to the White House a bill, promoted by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., to make the list permanent, overturning an FTC rule that people re-register their phone numbers every five years. The FTC reasoned that re-registering would update the list to account for people who move and switch their phone numbers. Critics argued that the list is already scrubbed each month of numbers that have been disconnected and reassigned to new customers.
Well, at least the tendency for Congress to have acute bread-and-circuses disease in election years worked in our favor this time.