CHEYENNE - Concluding they didn't want Wyoming to be the odd-state-out, members of a legislative committee Tuesday voted for a 9 p.m. cutoff for telemarketing calls.

The original House Bill 53 limited telephone solicitations to after 8 a.m. and before 7 p.m.

But after hearing testimony that Wyoming would be the only state with such an early cutoff if the 7 p.m. deadline passed, the House Corporations Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee moved the evening deadline back to 9 p.m. but left the morning start time at 8 a.m.

The committee went on to adopt HB 53 which now goes to the floor of the House for debate.

Deborah Hinckley, representing Qwest, said the 7 p.m. cutoff would make calling complex for national telemarketers. She said one state has an 8 p.m. cutoff while the others adhere to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule that prohibits calls before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m.

Hinckley said Qwest's policy is not to make phone solicitations during the dinner hour from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. A 7 p.m. deadline would force the telemarketers to call before 5 p.m. or before many people are home from work, she said.

Also opposed was Lynn Birleffi, representing the Wyoming Retail Merchants' Association, and Stephen Kline, a Cheyenne attorney representing the Direct Marketing Association.

Both Birleffi and Kline said a better solution to unwanted telemarketing calls is for consumers to get on the Direct Marketing Association's no-call list.

Kline said enforcement of any state law is difficult when the callers are from out of state.

"Rogue outfits aren't going to pay attention to a Wyoming law," Kline said.

The bill makes telemarketers who phone before 8 a.m. and after 9 p.m. subject to a $500 fine for a first violation, $2,500 for a second and $5,000 for a third and any subsequent violation.

Federal regulators, meanwhile, are working on a national no-call list because of the difficulty the state attorneys general have in enforcing state laws, said Rep. Owen Petersen, R-Mountain View, prime sponsor of HB 53 and a committee member.

Petersen said all the solutions to block unwanted telemarketer phones calls, be it getting on the Direct Marketing Association's no-call list or paying for telephone options like call waiting, put the onus on the consumers.

It should be the other way around, Petersen said.

"Put the burden on the perpetrator," he added.

The American Association of Retired Persons supported the 7 p.m. deadline in the original bill. Cathy Gonzales, AARP lobbyist, said four to five seniors in her neighborhood get up at 5 a.m. and are asleep by 8 p.m.

Senior citizens, she said, are frightened when they are awakened by phone calls.They also are members of a generation that is too polite to hang up on callers and are targets for fraudulent telemarketers, Gonzales said.

"Telemarketing has been the bane of many senior citizens," she said.