Schumer files against the Club for Growth AI-voice waiver on the reply deadline

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer filed a comment in CG Docket No. 02-278 on October 19, the reply deadline, asking the FCC to deny Club for Growth’s petition for an expedited waiver. The petition would let callers place noncommercial political calls to wireless numbers with an artificial or prerecorded voice, including an AI-generated one, without prior express consent. It proposes a three-call limit, an automated opt-out and caller-specific do-not-call lists. Schumer’s letter says those limit how often a voter is called, not whether the voice is authentic: “An opt-out can stop the next call; it cannot undo the first deception.” It cites the 2024 New Hampshire robocall that cloned President Biden’s voice.

Commissioner Anna Gomez told Reuters earlier in October that granting the petition “would bring chaos so close to Election Day,” Al Jazeera reported. An FCC spokesperson told Reuters “There is no one at the FCC that has expressed any interest in moving to an order” on this or any petition, and that the agency seeks comment on petitions as normal procedure. The midterm election is November 3.

Regulatory Watch covered the comment round in the October 9 dispatch and the first replies in the October 16 dispatch.