Keep Call Centers in America Act Explained for Operators

Written by: Matt Beucler, CEO, Plura AI

Updated May 2026

Key Takeaways for Contact Center and CX Leaders

• The Keep Call Centers in America Act (S.2495) requires 120-day notice before offshoring call-center operations for employers with 50 or more employees and imposes five-year federal grant and loan ineligibility for violators.

• Operators must disclose agent location and AI use at the start of every customer service interaction, and violations are treated as unfair or deceptive practices under the FTC Act.

• Offshore BPO contracts now carry new compliance exposure from federal legislation, FCC rulemaking, and state onshoring laws in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Missouri, and Florida.

• Domestic AI infrastructure provides a compliant alternative that avoids offshore risk while delivering significant cost savings compared to traditional $4M–$7M onshore human call centers.

• Plura AI provides 100% U.S. infrastructure across voice, SMS, RCS, and webchat, so you can see a live Plura demo and review your offshore risk profile in real time.

How the Keep Call Centers in America Act Changes Your Operating Model

For two decades, offshore BPOs (business process outsourcers) absorbed most U.S. high-volume outbound and customer-service work through wage arbitrage.

That model now sits under pressure from three directions: the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM, CG Docket No. 26-52), which proposes capping offshore customer-service calls at 30% and restricting offshore handling of sensitive consumer data; a growing set of state onshoring laws in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Missouri, and Florida; and S.2495 itself, which extends the federal regulatory perimeter to any employer operating a call center of specified size.

Every offshore BPO contract now carries compliance liability that did not exist three years ago. S.2495 adds a federal disclosure mandate, a public DOL (Department of Labor) list, and financial penalties that sit on the balance sheet, whether finance has priced them in or not. This combined pressure is accelerating demand for domestic AI infrastructure that can handle conversation volume at a fraction of legacy onshore human costs.

Meet Plura’s domestic infrastructure: schedule a walkthrough.

Core Requirements in the Keep Call Centers in America Act (S.2495)

The following provisions are drawn directly from the bill text published on Congress.gov:

• 50-employee threshold: Applies to any employer with 50 or more employees in a call center.

• 120-day notice requirement: Employers must notify the Secretary of Labor at least 120 days before relocating a call center or contracting call-center work overseas.

• DOL public list: The Secretary of Labor must maintain a publicly available list of employers that relocate call centers or contract call-center work overseas, and employers remain on the list for up to five years.

• Federal grant and loan ineligibility: Employers on the DOL list are ineligible to receive new direct or indirect federal grants or guaranteed loans for five years after being added.

• Existing grant and loan penalties: Employers already holding federal grants or loans that are added to the list must pay a monthly penalty and lose eligibility for further disbursements.

• Grant or loan cancellation: If an employer remains on the DOL list after one year, its federal grant or loan must be cancelled.

• Federal contract onshoring requirement: Any call-center work performed under a civilian or defense-related federal contract or subcontract must be performed inside the United States.

• Location disclosure: At the beginning of every customer service communication, agents must disclose their physical location and, if located outside the United States, inform the consumer of the right to be transferred immediately to a U.S.-based agent.

• AI disclosure: Business entities using artificial intelligence for customer service communications must disclose at the start of each communication that a nonhuman AI or machine is being used and offer the consumer an immediate transfer to a U.S.-based human agent.

• FTC annual certification: Business entities subject to the disclosure requirements must annually certify to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) whether they have complied with location and AI disclosure obligations.

• FTC Act enforcement: Violations of the customer service disclosure requirements are treated as violations of a regulation under section 18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act regarding unfair or deceptive acts or practices.

2026 Status Tracker for the Keep Call Centers in America Act

Milestone	Date	Current Stage	Projected Next Step
Introduced in Senate by Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ)	July 29, 2025	Completed	–
Referred to Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation	July 29, 2025	Completed	–
Committee markup and vote	Not scheduled	Pending	No date announced as of May 2026
Full Senate floor vote	Not scheduled	Pending	Contingent on committee action

The bill remains in the Introduced stage in the 119th Congress (2025–2026) with no further progress reported beyond initial committee referral. Operators should monitor the docket alongside the FCC NPRM (CG Docket No. 26-52), which moves on a separate regulatory track and carries its own enforcement timeline independent of S.2495’s legislative progress.

Penalty Structure Under the Keep Call Centers in America Act

S.2495 specifies four distinct penalty mechanisms, drawn from the bill text on Congress.gov:

• Civil penalty up to $10,000 per day for each day an employer fails to provide the required 120-day notice to the Secretary of Labor before relocating a call center or contracting work overseas.

• Five-year ineligibility for federal grants and guaranteed loans for employers placed on the DOL public list.

• Monthly penalties and disbursement freeze for employers already holding federal grants or loans at the time they are added to the DOL list.

• Grant or loan cancellation if the employer remains on the DOL list after one year.

Beyond the financial penalties, public listing on the DOL’s employer list creates reputational exposure. The list is publicly available, and placement on it signals to customers, investors, and federal procurement officers that the employer has moved significant call-center work offshore. For operators that depend on federal contracts or SBA (Small Business Administration) loan programs, the financial consequences of list placement are direct and quantifiable.

Industries and Operators with the Highest Exposure

Given these penalty mechanisms and their financial impact, certain industries face disproportionate exposure based on their reliance on high-volume customer service operations and federal funding. Industries with the highest exposure include e-commerce and retail, logistics and distribution, healthcare and insurance, financial services, technology and consumer products, and government contractors. The 50-employee threshold in the bill text means mid-market and enterprise operators are the primary targets, not small businesses.

Federal contractors carry a distinct layer of exposure. S.2495 requires that any call-center work performed under a civilian or defense-related federal contract or subcontract be performed inside the United States, regardless of the employer’s size or whether the 120-day notice provision otherwise applies. Operators in healthcare, financial services, and legal services also face overlapping state-level restrictions, including New York’s Call Center Jobs Act and Florida rules on offshore handling of medical information, that compound the federal exposure under S.2495.

Business Impacts and Immediate Compliance Tasks

Operators with offshore BPO contracts or AI tools running on foreign infrastructure face four immediate compliance tasks:

• Vendor exposure assessment: Identify every BPO contract and AI platform vendor that routes customer service communications through non-U.S. infrastructure. Map which contracts involve 50 or more call-center employees and which touch federal grants, loans, or contracts.

• Contract audit: Review offshore BPO agreements for termination clauses, notice periods, and data-handling provisions that may intersect with S.2495’s disclosure requirements or the FCC NPRM’s proposed sensitive-data restrictions.

• Disclosure process mapping: Determine whether current customer service communications across voice, SMS, and chat include the location and AI disclosures S.2495 describes at the start of each interaction. Map the gap between current practice and the bill’s requirements.

• Infrastructure review: Audit whether AI tools in use are API wrappers running on third-party telecom carriers with foreign infrastructure dependencies. Many Twilio-based AI resellers cannot confirm fully domestic data routing, which creates exposure under both S.2495 and the FCC NPRM.

Consult qualified legal counsel before drawing conclusions about your specific obligations under S.2495 or any related regulation.

AI-Powered Onshore Alternatives: 2026 Cost and Risk Comparison

Option	Annual TCO	U.S. Infrastructure	Key Compliance Risk
Legacy onshore human call center	$4M–$7M	Yes	Linear cost scaling, no offshore risk but unsustainable economics
Offshore BPO (e.g., Concentrix, TaskUs, TTEC)4	Lower than onshore human, varies by contract	No	FCC NPRM cap proposals, S.2495 DOL list and penalty exposure, state onshoring laws in NY, NJ, CT, MO, FL
Twilio-based API-wrapper AI tools (e.g., Bland AI, Vapi, Synthflow)4	Varies, wrapper tax passed to customer	Not confirmed by the architecture	Cannot issue branded caller ID at the carrier level, real-time DNC scrubbing bolted on, foreign infrastructure dependencies possible
Plura AI, FCC-licensed end-to-end platform	$300K–$700K	Yes, carrier-level domestic routing	Voice origination, model hosting, data storage, and call recording on domestic infrastructure, real-time DNC and TCPA enforcement, STIR/SHAKEN authentication at the carrier level

Plura is its own FCC-licensed audio bridging carrier, so voice does not route through Twilio or another CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service). Every channel, including voice, SMS, RCS, and webchat, shares a Stateful Conversation Database, so an agent that texted a lead at 9 a.m. can pick up the call at noon already knowing what was said. Run your numbers through Plura’s calculator to check your ROI in real time.

How Plura AI Supports Compliance Without Legacy Onshore Costs

Plura AI is built on four compliance-relevant architectural facts.

First, as an FCC-licensed carrier, voice origination, model hosting, data storage, and call recording all sit on domestic U.S. infrastructure, so operators can report fully U.S.-handled traffic in their broadband consumer label disclosures.

Second, a branded caller ID is issued directly through Plura’s carrier stack, not through a third-party reseller, which means STIR/SHAKEN (caller-ID authentication standard implementing the TRACED Act) authentication runs at origination.

Third, every outbound contact is checked against federal and state DNC (Do Not Call) registries in real time before dial, with TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227) consent records that are timestamped, immutable, and audit-ready.^1,2

Fourth, the platform carries SOC 2, HIPAA, and ISO certification, with 50 or more state rule sets enforced on every outbound contact.¹

These architectural advantages translate directly to cost structure. A 15-agent operation paying $20 per hour with standard taxes, benefits, and commissions costs about $60,000 per month to operate at 40% talk utilization. Replacing that team with Plura at $15 per hour, 100% talk utilization, and six Plura agents doing the work of 15 humans drops the monthly cost to $14,400, which yields a 30-day saving of $45,600 and a 12-month saving of $547,200.

For higher-volume operations, TCO runs $300K–$700K per year against the traditional contact-center benchmark cited earlier. Plura customers report three times the average ROI in 90 days, 47% pipeline growth, and 90% faster lead-response time.³

Customers are responsible for their own regulatory obligations and certifications. Plura provides the infrastructure, and compliance posture downstream of that infrastructure is the customer’s responsibility. Consult qualified legal counsel regarding your specific obligations under S.2495, the FCC NPRM, or any applicable state law.

Walk through Plura’s carrier stack and real-time controls in a tailored demo for your operation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the Keep Call Centers in America Act mean?

The Keep Call Centers in America Act (S.2495) is a federal bill introduced in the U.S. Senate on July 29, 2025, by Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ). It requires employers with 50 or more call-center employees to notify the Secretary of Labor at least 120 days before relocating a call center or contracting call-center work overseas. It also requires businesses to disclose the physical location of customer service agents at the start of every communication and to inform consumers of their right to transfer to a U.S.-based agent if the current agent is located outside the United States.

Businesses that offshore call-center work are placed on a public DOL list and become ineligible for federal grants and guaranteed loans for five years. As of May 2026, the bill remains in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation with no scheduled markup or floor vote.

What are the penalties under the Keep Call Centers in America Act?

S.2495 specifies four penalty mechanisms. Employers that fail to provide the required 120-day notice before offshoring call-center work face civil penalties of up to $10,000 per day of violation. Employers placed on the DOL public list become ineligible for new federal grants or guaranteed loans for five years. Employers already holding federal grants or loans at the time of list placement must pay a monthly penalty and lose eligibility for further disbursements. If an employer remains on the DOL list after one year, its existing federal grant or loan must be cancelled. Public listing also creates reputational exposure with customers, investors, and federal procurement officers.

Does S.2495 apply to AI customer service?

The bill text explicitly addresses AI use in customer service. Under S.2495, any business entity using artificial intelligence for customer service communications must disclose at the start of each communication that a nonhuman AI or machine is being used and must offer the consumer an immediate transfer to a human operator physically located in the United States. Business entities subject to these disclosure requirements must also annually certify to the FTC whether they have complied.

Violations of the disclosure requirements are treated as violations under the Federal Trade Commission Act regarding unfair or deceptive acts or practices. Operators using AI tools with foreign infrastructure dependencies face compounding exposure under both S.2495 and the FCC NPRM (CG Docket No. 26-52).

How can operators prepare for S.2495 compliance in 2026?

Operators can take four practical steps while the bill remains in committee. First, audit every BPO contract and AI platform vendor to identify non-U.S. infrastructure dependencies. Second, review whether current customer service communications include the location and AI disclosures S.2495 describes at the start of each interaction. Third, assess federal grant, loan, and contract exposure, since operators with federal contracts face an additional requirement that all call-center work under those contracts be performed inside the United States. Fourth, evaluate whether current AI tools are API wrappers running on third-party telecom carriers that cannot confirm fully domestic data routing.

Consult qualified legal counsel before drawing conclusions about your specific obligations. The FCC NPRM (CG Docket No. 26-52) moves on a separate regulatory track and may impose requirements on covered communications providers before S.2495 advances through Congress.

Which industries face the most exposure under S.2495?

Industries with the highest exposure include healthcare and insurance, financial services, e-commerce and retail, logistics and distribution, technology and consumer products, and government contractors. The 50-employee threshold targets mid-market and enterprise operators rather than small businesses.

Federal contractors face a distinct layer of exposure regardless of size, because S.2495 describes that any call-center work performed under a civilian or defense-related federal contract or subcontract be performed inside the United States. Operators in healthcare, financial services, and legal services also face overlapping state-level restrictions in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Missouri, and Florida that compound the federal exposure under S.2495.

Conclusion: Using Domestic AI Infrastructure to Meet Onshoring Pressure

The Keep Call Centers in America Act (S.2495), the FCC NPRM (CG Docket No. 26-52), and active state onshoring laws in five states are collectively shifting the economics of customer conversations.

Offshore BPO contracts that were cost-efficient two years ago now carry public listing risk, federal funding ineligibility, and disclosure mandates that did not exist before. Legacy onshore human call centers remain compliant by geography but carry the multi-million-dollar TCO that most operators cannot sustain at the conversion economics modern buyers demand.

Plura AI’s FCC-licensed carrier stack, real-time DNC and TCPA enforcement, STIR/SHAKEN authentication, and stateful cross-channel memory deliver the domestic infrastructure described above at $300K–$700K TCO. The platform contacts leads in under five seconds, holds memory-driven conversations across voice, SMS, RCS, and webchat, and delivers three times the average ROI in 90 days for high-volume operators across healthcare, insurance, financial services, legal, real estate, e-commerce, automotive, and franchise networks.

Run your numbers through Plura’s calculator to check your ROI in real time. Compare plans and rates side by side.