Language has been restored to the United States’ ‘Junk Fax Prevention Act’ that maintains the "established business relationship" exception that allows associations and companies to send unsolicited faxes to their members and clients. The bill has been passed by the House and Senate and should be signed by the President this week. In addition to restoring the ‚established business relationship‛ exception, the bill stipulates that: 

-- all unsolicited commercial faxes include an opt-out provision on the first page of the fax, providing a cost-free, 24-hour means for the recipient to request to be removed from the fax distribution list; and

-- fax numbers be obtained either directly from the recipient or from a public source to which the recipient gave the number for publication (i.e., a Web site,  advertisement or directory).   

It also "grandfathers" in fax numbers in the possession of the sender at the time of enactment.  Congratulations to ASAE and the other associations and businesses that spent more than two years working to protect our ability to communicate information to members and customers.