Palmer takes aim at ending illegal robocalls — 'Some are merely annoying, but others have devastating consequences'

June 5, 2025

On Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) led a subcommittee hearing on ending illegal robocalls and robotexts.

"Some are merely annoying, but others have devastating consequences," Palmer said during the hearing. He said some robocalls were legal and allowed people to unsubscribe from the caller's list, but the calls he is concerned about come from scammers, who have conned people out of millions of dollars.

"It's particularly a problem for older people. I had one individual who lost $300,000, and he had a heart condition, and I really think it contributed to the heart attack that took his life," Palmer said Wednesday afternoon on Newsmax TV's "The Record With Greta Van Susteren." "[I] think there's another issue here that crosses the whole spectrum, whether it's illegal or legal, and that is we need more public awareness of this. I could see the need for a public service announcement type ad to just alert people to these problems, and particularly the ones that are true scams, efforts that have taken advantage of so many people."

Palmer said during the hearing that roughly 2,000 robocalls are placed every second in the United States, with scammers often pretending to be a loved one or a public official. He said there has also been a rise in robocalls, AI calls, voice clones, and deepfakes.

Thanks to the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act passed in 2019, Palmer said American service providers are required to make efforts to reduce robocalls and scammers. While he applauded those efforts, he said more needed to be done to target bad actors, particularly calls from overseas.

"We must continue to find ways to combat the unwanted communications," he said.