LI State Senator Sponsors New Bill To Target Telemarketers During Emergencies

NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Long Island State Sen. Kevin Thomas is sponsoring a bill targeting telemarketers.

Thomas, a Democrat, says the bill would make it illegal for a telemarketing company to call anyone if there is a disaster or state of emergency.

"During a Superstorm Sandy or any other natural disaster or any sort of state of emergency we need these phone lines to be open for the residents to call or for emergency notifications to go out,” Thomas said. “And we don't want it to be clawed by telemarketers."

He says it doesn’t matter if the company is located in California and the disaster is happening in New York, “They need to know who they are calling. If they know that there's been a state of emergency declared in that area they should not be calling those numbers. They should not be calling into that state."

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