In a nationwide crackdown announced yesterday that includes over 30 new enforcement actions, the FTC, in connection with local law enforcement agencies, is targeting debt collectors who use illegal tactics such as harassing phone calls and false threats of litigation, arrest, and wage garnishment.

This comes just as California has reached a one hundred million dollar settlement with JP Morgan Chase regarding the bank’s alleged wrongdoing, which included collecting incorrect amounts, selling bad credit card debt, and running a debt collection mill that involved illegally “robo-signing” thousands of court documents and improperly obtaining default judgments against military service members.

While the FTC, state and local governments are cracking down on debt collectors, the US federal government has passed a new budget that would exempt debt collectors from most of the robocall prohibitions in the TCPA when collecting on debt owed or guaranteed by the federal government. The FCC now has nine months to issue regulations implementing the new exemption. The FCC may, but is not required to, “restrict or limit the number and duration of calls made to a telephone number assigned to a cellular telephone service to collect a debt owed to or guaranteed by the United States.” More information on the FCC’s rule making process is available here.