Legislative Report – December 2019

Federal Legislative Summary

A federal bill that will add meaningful strength in the battle to end persistent “robocalling” abuses that all Americans suffer from, passed Congress and on December 30, 2019, was signed into law by President Trump. Cited as the “Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act” or “TRACED Act,” S. 151 will create a call authentication framework for all calls made through a voice service. It provides safe harbor for carriers against liability and it provides safeguards for legitimate business needs. We are certain there will be many issues that will need to be addressed as regulations are published. As with any major legislation, regulations will loom large and we will do our best to keep members informed on any aspect of the law or proposed regulations with a potential impact to the industry.

S. 2968, introduced on December 3, 2019 would create more comprehensive online privacy rights for consumers who have personal data held by one or more vendors. It creates express consent provisions and addresses means and methods for data transfer of consumer related information.

Download the Member-Only December 2019 Federal Legislative Report

State Legislative Summary

Virginia has introduced a pair of troubling bills that would significantly harm merit-based contractors who do not use union-labor for their public works projects. SB 182 was filed on December 24, 2019 and would repeal current public law that protects merit-based contractors who wish to engage in public works contracts with state agencies. The bill would repeal the code that prohibits a state agency from requiring all bidders enter into project labor agreements with unions on behalf of contractors’ employees.

Another bill filed in the Virginia House (HB 358) on January 1, 2020 would authorize any local or state agency seeking bids for public works projects to require all bidders to adhere to union-based project labor agreements and would force any contractor seeking public works projects to enter into collective bargaining contracts with unions for all employees engaged in the contract.

In tandem, these bills (SB 182 and HB 358) would remove all government neutrality for public works contracts and make the Virginia government an advocate for union-only bidders of government contracts.

The State of Utah recently enacted a major tax reform bill (SB 2001) that reduces personal and corporate income taxes but adds numerous services subject to sales tax. Included in this expansion of sales tax was “security system monitoring.”

Download the Member-Only December 2019 State Legislative Report