Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday urged the Federal Communications Commission to reject a petition from conservative group Club for Growth that would permit political robocalls to cellphones using AI-generated or prerecorded voices without prior express consent, a move Schumer warned could flood voters with deceptive messages before next month’s congressional elections.
Lawmakers press regulators on deepfake calls
Schumer’s appeal comes as the FCC’s public comment period on the matter expires this week, raising the possibility the agency could act before the Nov. 3 midterm elections. An FCC spokesperson for Chair Brendan Carr did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
"There is absolutely no excuse to relax these standards and allow special interests to flood our cellphone lines with deepfakes or dark-money-funded AI voices," Schumer said.
The petition was filed by Club for Growth, a prominent conservative advocacy organization that has said it plans to spend heavily in the midterm cycle. In its filing, the group asked the FCC to treat political calls using artificial or prerecorded voices the same as many nonpolitical automated wireless calls — for example, those about package delivery, bank accounts or medical appointments — and to allow them to go to cellphones without first obtaining express consent from the recipient.
Club for Growth President David McIntosh argued the group seeks parity for political speech. In public statements the organization said it wants the FCC to apply its rules uniformly across types of calls.
Election stakes and legal precedent
The appeal has drawn public opposition from a coalition of consumer and public-interest groups as well as dissent within the FCC itself; Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez publicly advised against granting the petition. The concern centers on the potential for deceptive practices — including voice cloning and other AI tools — to be used to impersonate opponents or spread false information to mobile users at scale.
Schumer highlighted the broader context of FCC enforcement around synthetic-voice political messages, pointing to an earlier action in which federal regulators proposed a fine for a political consultant over robocalls that imitated then-President Joe Biden and told New Hampshire voters not to participate in a Democratic primary. That episode underscores regulators’ existing attention to imitation and misinformation delivered by automated calls.
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Club for Growth planned midterm spending | $175 million |
| FCC proposed fine in 2024 robocall case | $6 million |
Implications for voters and campaigns
Advocates urging denial of the petition say allowing AI-driven political calls without prior consent would lower a critical safeguard for consumers and voters, making it easier to use cloned or fabricated voices to mislead. Supporters of the petition counter that political speech enjoys robust First Amendment protection and that similar automated nonpolitical messages are permitted to reach mobile users.
If the FCC approves the petition, political organizations could deploy automated AI voices directly to cellphones at scale without obtaining recipients’ prior express consent, which opponents say could blur lines between legitimate outreach and manufactured deception. That dynamic raises questions about how quickly the agency could detect and respond to misuse, and whether existing telemarketing and robocall rules sufficiently address the unique risks posed by generative AI.
- Timeline: FCC comment period ends this week; potential action before Nov. 3 midterms.
- Policy stakes: Balance between First Amendment protections for political speech and consumer safeguards against deepfakes.
- Enforcement history: FCC has pursued penalties for prior synthetic-voice robocalls.
As the FCC weighs the petition, the debate frames a broader set of regulatory decisions about how electoral communications will be governed in the era of rapidly advancing generative AI — with consequences for how campaigns reach voters and for the integrity of information circulating during a nationally consequential election.
