After years of worsening robocalls, a bipartisan group of senators has introduced a bill today that would levy greater penalties on people and groups that place the scammy and sometimes malicious calls.

The TRACED Act, sponsored by Sens. John Thune (R-SD), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Roger Wicker (R-MS), would dramatically increase the penalty per robocall to up to $10,000. Previously, violators were charged with up to $1,500 per call. Currently, the Federal Communications Commission can only prosecute violators over inauthentic calls that were placed in the past year. This bill increases that time frame to three years. In previous letters to the senators, the commission said that “even a one-year longer statute of limitations for enforcement. . . would improve the Commission’s enforcement efforts against knowing and willful violators.”

Earlier this year, the FCC inflicted a $120 million fine on a robocall kingpin. It was one of the largest fines ever implemented for robocall violations, and it signified that the federal government would prioritize lessening the burden of these calls on consumers. This bill generally gives the FCC more power to act on these calls, and this new power has the potential to dissuade others from placing them.

“Existing civil penalty rules were designed to impose penalties on lawful telemarketers who make mistakes,” Thune said. “This enforcement regime is totally inadequate for scam artists and we need do more to separate enforcement of carelessness and other mistakes from more sinister actors.”

The TRACED Act also directs agencies like the Justice Department, FCC, Federal Trade Commission, and the Department of Homeland Security to work together along with state attorneys general to identify methods of deterring criminals from placing these calls and find better ways to identify and prosecute them as well. The interagency group would then report back to Congress with their findings.

The bill would also require voice service providers to put a call authentication service in place, enabling carriers to identify whether the calls are inauthentic before pushing them to consumers. Some carriers like AT&T and Verizon Wireless have apps that screen calls to determine whether they are spam, but those only exist on devices with app stores. If enacted, carriers would have 18 months to set up a framework in their internet protocol networks. Only a small portion of robocallers face criminal penalties, so those preventative measures are likely to be more effective in the long term.

“As the scourge of spoofed calls and robocalls reaches epidemic levels, the bipartisan TRACED Act will provide every person with a phone much needed relief,” Markey said.

Updated 11/16/18 11:50 a.m.: Added statements from Sen. John Thune (R-SD) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA).