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FCC Chairman Ajit Pai also issued a congratulatory statement.

\"Specifically, I am glad that the agency now has a longer statute of limitations during which we can pursue scammers and I welcome the removal of a previously required warning we had to give to unlawful robocallers before imposing tough penalties,\" Pai said.

The legislation comes after Americans' phones rang 5 billion times in the month of November due to robocalls alone -- almost 2,000 calls per second -- according to a May report by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. The report also estimated that nearly half of all calls to cell phones are scam robocalls.

\"American families deserve control over their communications, and this legislation will update our laws and regulations to stiffen penalties, increase transparency, and enhance government collaboration to stop unwanted solicitation,\" White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement Monday night, when the president signed the legislation.

USTelecom, a phone industry trade group, praised the bill's passage, saying it \"will supercharge\" the fight against robocallers.

The Rep @FrankPallone/@SenJohnThune #TRACEDact has been signed by #POTUS, officially enacting a law that will go a long way in the fight to stop illegal #robocalls.@YahooFinance's @benwerschkul

— USTelecom (@USTelecom) December 31, 2019

However, while some experts predict that as phone companies put more tools in place to combat robocalls, scammers will find new ways to reach victims. To prevent that, the FCC in December 2019 launched a study on blocking robocall services and their effectiveness.

ABC News' Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.

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