On November 10, 2026, Attorney General Anthony G. Brown and a bipartisan coalition of 42 attorneys general urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to enhance its Robocall Mitigation Database (RMD) to combat unlawful robocalls. The coalition filed comments in response to the FCC’s proposed changes, advocating for measures to ensure the accuracy of information in the RMD and to deter noncompliant providers from appearing in the database.

The attorneys general argue that improvements to the RMD could reduce unlawful call traffic and promote transparency around robocall mitigation practices. The full comments submitted by the coalition can be viewed here.

Press Release: Office of the Attorney General of Maryland

Published November 10, 2026. Reproduced in full from the Office of the Attorney General of Maryland.

Attorney General Brown Urges FCC to Improve the Robocall Mitigation Database in Effort to Combat Unlawful Robocalls

BALTIMORE, MD: Attorney General Anthony G. Brown and a bipartisan coalition of 42 attorneys general are urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to improve its Robocall Mitigation Database (RMD) to help curb unlawful robocalls.

Telephone and voice service providers must submit a filing with the RMD before they can accept and route call traffic through the U.S. communications network. That filing must include information about the provider’s business and robocall mitigation practices. Downstream providers can only accept calls from providers that are in the RMD. However, some providers in the RMD have been connected to unlawful robocall activity.

The attorneys general are urging the FCC to improve the effectiveness of the RMD by strengthening filing obligations and deterring bad actors and noncompliant providers from appearing in the RMD. The attorneys general argue that improvements could allow the RMD to serve as a barrier to entry, reducing unlawful call traffic, and as the authoritative resource for promoting transparency and accountability around all providers’ robocall mitigation practices.

The coalition filed comments in response to the FCC’s proposed changes to the RMD, both supporting the FCC’s proposed changes and recommending additional measures. The attorneys general urge the FCC to:

  • Ensure that all information in the RMD is accurate and complete. The FCC should thoroughly vet all information submitted to the RMD before allowing a provider to appear in the RMD and to start sending call traffic through the network.
  • Require additional disclosures. The FCC should require providers to disclose their use of third parties, related entities, the legitimacy of claims of a domestic presence, and access to numbering resources.
  • Make it more difficult for bad actors to enter or re-enter the RMD. The attorneys general support the FCC’s proposed methods to suspend or remove bad actors from the RMD, strengthen the filing format and content of robocall mitigation plans, and require that RMD filers provide evidence of solvency.
  • Hold providers responsible for all filings made on their behalf. The coalition does not oppose allowing for third-party submissions on behalf of providers to the RMD, as long as providers and their principals are responsible for the information submitted on their behalf.
  • Impose additional certification requirements to allow for quicker removal from the RMD when necessary. Providers should be required to certify that they have not submitted false or misleading information, are in compliance with all applicable FCC robocall rules, and will respond within 24 hours to traceback requests.
  • Require providers to notify their upstream customers and downstream providers of FCC orders and notices. The FCC should require providers subject to an FCC removal order, suspension, or mandatory blocking order to notify their calling customers of the same. It should further allow the downstream providers of the voice service providers subject to such orders to also notify those same customers that their calls will be blocked if they continue to attempt to send their call traffic through that provider that was issued an FCC order.
  • Make historical RMD filings public. The historical data of providers that have been removed from the RMD would be useful to law enforcement and others.
  • Implement all proposed rules as soon as possible and maintain RMD obligations in the meantime. If the proposals to strengthen the RMD are adopted, the database would reliably help safeguard the communications network against unlawful robocalls, making swift implementation crucial. The FCC should also keep in place all obligations that protect against bad actors until reinforced guardrails are implemented.

Attorney General Brown is part of the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force, which launched Operation Robocall Roundup in 2025.

In phase 1 of the operation, the task force sent warning letters to 37 smaller voice providers that were disregarding their obligations to mitigate the origination and transmission of unlawful and/or suspicious robocalls by failing to comply with certain baseline mandates from the FCC. In the last year, the FCC has issued subsequent orders to at least 16 of those companies, ordering them to fix their robocall mitigation issues and/or removing them from the RMD altogether and preventing them from routing any calls across the U.S. telephone network.

In phase 2, the task force expanded its crackdown to four of the country’s largest intermediate voice service providers and urged the FCC to strengthen:

  • Rules that would cut off scammers’ access to legitimate phone numbers;
  • Its Know Your Customer rules to require phone companies to verify who is making calls using their networks and what kinds of business their customers are conducting; and
  • Its Know Your Upstream Provider rules to require voice service providers to ensure that they receive calls from legitimate and responsible providers and do not route high volumes of unlawful calls.

Attorney General Brown is joined in submitting these comments by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaiʻi, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming.