Murray Helps Pass Anti-Spam Bill

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – The Senate approved the nation’s first federal anti-spam legislation to block unwanted email. The bill, the CAN SPAM Act of 2003 (S.877), passed by a vote of 97-0. The bill imposes penalties on high-volume spammers, prohibits false and misleading subject lines and headers, and requires senders to include a valid return address.

Senator Murray released the following statement:

“The Senate has sent a message to spammers that unsolicited email is not just annoying, it could soon be a crime.

In today’s high-tech world, we look to email as an efficient way to communicate at work, at school and at home. Unfortunately, the efficiency of email is too often undermined by unscrupulous spammers who force us to wade through in-boxes full of unwanted or offensive messages.

I am proud to have supported the Senate’s anti-spam measure to help all of us spend less time hitting ‘delete’ and more time communicating.”