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NAFCU leaders and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai will meet today at FCC headquarters to discuss the current approach to rulemaking regarding the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). NAFCU has urged the FCC for more clarity and flexibility so credit unions can contact their members without fear of breaking the law.

NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger, Executive Vice President of Government Affairs and General Counsel Carrie Hunt, Director of Regulatory Affairs Alexander Monterrubio and Regulatory Affairs Counsel Ann Kossachev will attend today's meeting.

In March, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a decision in a lawsuit, ACA International v. FCC, that stemmed from a declaratory ruling and order the FCC issued in July 2015 providing limited exemptions under the TCPA for financial institutions making free autodialed calls to consumers. The court invalidated the FCC's definition of "autodialer" and rejected the commission's interpretation of when a caller violates the TCPA by calling a reassigned number.

In light of this ruling, NAFCU has encouraged the FCC to clarify the definition of an Automatic Telephone Dialing System (ATDS) for the sake of consistency and take other action to "ensure that consumers whose mobile phone numbers have been reassigned continue to receive important communications." Earlier this month, NAFCU, along with more than a dozen other trade associations, petitioned the FCC to do just this.

NAFCU has engaged on this issue since the FCC issued the declaratory ruling, entering into ACA's suit in September 2015. Since then, the association has been active in order to protect financial institutions' ability to communicate with their members about sensitive financial information:

• In March, NAFCU sent a letter to Pai asking him to further address questions left unanswered by the court's decision.
• In February, the association met with the FCC and a coalition of other trade groups to discuss the TCPA and the commission's efforts to target illegal robocalls.
• In January, NAFCU again voiced its support for the creation of a reassigned numbers database overseen by the FCC, encouraging the commission to move forward with a rulemaking regarding this database as it would allow credit unions to verify reassigned numbers and avoid liability under the TCPA.
• In 2017 alone, NAFCU sent five letters to the FCC, in addition to others sent to Congress, asking for revisions to the TCPA.
• In November, NAFCU shared credit unions' concerns with FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn.

Clyburn announced that she will be stepping down soon from the FCC. During her eight years at the FCC, Clyburn focused on the needs of low-income and minority communities.

NAFCU's Regulatory Committee also met last week to discuss the FCC's second further notice of proposed rulemaking related to calls made to reassigned numbers and liability under the TCPA. The FCC is in the information-gathering stage of the rulemaking process and is expected to issue a rule on reassigned numbers later this year. Credit unions can learn more and provide comments to NAFCU on this rulemaking through the association's Regulatory Alert.