A package of bills meant to crack down on robocalls in New York and expand on federal efforts was approved Monday by Gov. Kathy Hochul. 

The new laws, backed by Sen. Jeremy Cooney and Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, would require phone service providers to block robocalls from certain numbers while also requiring providers to implement a call authentication framework to validate calls.   

"New Yorkers are fed up with annoying, predatory robocalls, and we're taking action to stop them," Hochul said. "This legislation will enable telecom companies to prevent these calls from coming in in the first place, as well as empower our state government to ensure that voice service providers are validating who is making these calls so enforcement action can be taken against bad actors."  

The measure blocking calls codifies in state law a rule from the Federal Communications Commission that allows phone providers to pro-actively block calls from numbers. That rule change went into effect in June 2021. 

"Robocalls are disruptive, pervasive, and serve no benefit to families and communities. Blocking spam and robocalls can protect vulnerable consumer populations from predatory practices, in particular our seniors who have been targeted by scammers during the pandemic," Cooney said. "Stopping as many illegitimate calls as possible will help New Yorkers feel safe when using their phones."

The other measure implementing the call authentication framework builds on a federal law approved last June and is meant to bolster state enforcement of bad actors. 

"These bills are a significant step in ending the current and escalating scourge of robocalls. At the same time, they will help protect consumers from fraudulent and costly robocall schemes," Paulin said. "Robocalls are a daily annoyance, No one wants to answer the phone anymore. You can't even trust calls from local numbers.  By requiring providers to utilize technology that prevents spoofed numbers and proactively block calls that are clearly illegitimate, these bills are a critical step towards ending this nuisance."