What the act does: The Federal Communications Commission now has a longer shot clock to bring a robocall case--up to four years, instead of one or two currently. In an effort to speed up enforcement, the agency also now may take legal action against violators without issuing a warning first, as they have previously been required to do.

The law is designed to push prosecutors to jail violators of telephone consumer-protection laws, recognizing that the government struggles to collect on big-ticket fines from civil litigation. The new law requires the FCC to share evidence of robocall violations with the attorney general, and to disclose how often it does so.

What it doesn't do: More prosecutions won't necessarily solve the "Whac-A-Mole" problem: Mass dialing with internet-based technology is so easy that bad actors pop up constantly using new names or locations.