A state senator who is tired of solicitation calls on his cell phone wants to change the no-call law.
Senator Jason Crowell of Cape Girardeau does not answer cell phone calls if he doesn’t recognize the number. And he says he gets too many calls from strange numbers.
Crowell will become the latest lawmaker to try to expand the state’s no-call list to include cell phone numbers. The present law now covers only land line residential numbers–more than 2.7 million of them. Crowell calls the proposal a ‘logical extension of the wildly popular” program.
He says calls to cell phones are equally inconvenient as calls to regular phones at home. And Crowell says the increasing numbers of people abandoning land lines in favor of cell phone service only further justifies extending the law.
If the no-call list is such a great protection for land lines, he says, it should not be a burden to extend the coverage to cell phone numbers, too. And Crowell says he would not object to extending the coverage to business numbers.
Present law allows fines of as much as five-thousand dollars for each violation by telemarketers.
The issue has been around for five legislative sessions but has struggled for votes.
Interview with Sen. Crowell 3:10 mp3