I think you may be trying to read too much into that.  The law prohibits direct sales calls, not push-polls or something more general.
Here is the type of thing they can't do.
They call and ask you questions, as in a poll.  For example Do you live in a condo, apartment, or a house?   Do you own the house?  Is there an HOA with lots of restrictions?  They get info about the type of house you live in.  Now they know (if you live in a house and own it)  you are a target for their product ... they are selling  energy saving storm windows ... so they proceed with a direct sales call.
In a case like that the call, or any call in a chain of calls is prohibited.

A number of telemarketers tried to confuse the issue, pretend to take a poll etc sort of in an attempt to look for loopholes.  But the whole matter can not end in a direct sales approach, no matter what else they do.

I just called the number given for CEA here and got ahold of their operator. I explained to her that I was getting calls from the "202" number and that I want them to stop. She said she will send an email to the company doing the surveys and instruct them to remove my phone number from their list. Now if that works, I'll be highly surprised but I hope that it does!

They have left two voicemails.  If I get one more I will try calling the number someone gave and tell them to take me off their list.  Survey calls should not be exempt IMHO.

Please remove me from your list.

Don't fracking call my # again and remove me from your list.If you give or sell my # to anyone or group I will report you to the attorney generals office!

2nd call I am aware of from this number.  Just got a call from this number a few minutes ago.  We no longer pick up phones that we don't recognize in this household.  The answering machine just picks up "Hello California" and it stops.  The call ends after that.  At least it knows the state it is calling.

Obnoxious pricks. And so it begins... another election season during which political hacks can annoy the hell out of the American public by bombarding them with annoying, irritating, pointless phone calls.

Or 'whisper campaigns'! Worse! For instance, a recorded message: "Did you know that Rick Perry is gay?" WTF?! I know he's a complete & utter A-hole with fewer functioning brain cells than something lying dead on the bottom of a stagnant pond, but I'm pretty sure he's not gay. Still, once you start a rumor like that...

Political calls (what I refer to as Liars) & charity calls (Beggars) are exempted from the Do Not Call List unless you request to be removed. Of course, it's usually almost impossible to contact the originator of these robo-calls. Additionally, there are the calls masquerading as US numbers that are actually from foreign countries & who try to get your personal information so they can rob you (Thieves).

I know most people can't afford to do this, but for a while, I unplugged my phone 'cuz I was getting so many calls from Liars, Beggars & Thieves. It really IS annoying. Next time someone proposes a law about annoying callers, let's make sure they put the effing Liars & Beggars on the list of people who CAN'T call you if you don't want them to.

Additionally, why can't a country -- that can see from a satellite what's on the dinner table in a tent in the middle of the Sahara -- prevent Thieves from co-opting our damned phone system to rob its citizens?!

I am getting annoying calls daily from this number. It is a public research company.  This is NOT a charity nor a Politician. It is a for profit company that is ignoring the do not call status of my telephone

Received a call from this number yesterday night and just a short while ago. I picked up the first call but there was no response. I let the second call go to the answering machine but no message was left. Caller ID: Washington, DC

From the FTC's website:  If calls are being made for the sole purpose of conducting a survey or poll, they are exempt. But purported survey calls are not exempt if they are also part of a plan, program or campaign to induce purchases of goods or services. Organizations placing such telemarketing calls must comply with the Do Not Call provisions and are not Exempt Organizations.

I missed this call tonight, so I don't know for sure.  But from what others report, it sounds like they come off as a "straight" survey initially (which is OK according to the rules).  Where they break the rule is by then asking probing questions about signing bills and/or with attempts to persuade one about the benefits of a specific pipeline project.

If they are within the survey exemption, they are only narrowly so IMHO.

Welllll...they asked me political question on if I'm voting for Obama and how I feel about abortion...so I guess they asked allll kinds of questions....I HATE getting calls on my cell phone like that!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Told an official air force guy at walmart at the cash register that Major Archie G. Slaten, now deceased, told me 10 years ago that he worked at Area 51 and flew UFO type vehicles to other planets back in the late 60's and early 70's but that in his expeditions, they could not find any life.  I also said that the war in Heaven was a real physical war and that according to Richard C. Hoagland, NASA will send a manned mission to the asteroid Vesta due to the ancient building structers on it and that full disclosure was comming soon to reveal that most of the planets in our galaxy has ancient buildings on them.  The US Airforce guy then asked me something about the end of the world in 2012, so I told him that it is not the end of the world, but a new era with NEW Rules of Engagement.  NEXT DAY I GET A CALL FROM THIS NUMBER 202-677-3120 from the District of Columbia and so I took out the battery from my cell phone as the CIA uses official outgoing lobbying/poll type phone calls to initiate wher ones whereabouts is and collect info on them.  AS A SIDE NOTE to this posting: God is not an evil alien comming to destroy this planet but rather the Holy Spirit of God will start to LEAVE Earth in 2013 which will eventually cause the heavens to roll back like a scroll, a third of the trees to die, a third of the worlds population to die, a third of ALL Earths water supply to turn blood red, and all the green grass to be burned up (Revelations).  God will no longer permit any more wormholes peering into the future and mankind will be in the beginning stages of Angelhood which will be complete in less than 1100 years from now when Jesus Christ comes back the third time.  Jesus Christ promissed to return and take all the Good people who has fulfilled God's Law (Congruous Volition) back HOME.  Our soul belongs to God and is a little piece of God that only remembers Godly and Righteous things.  All souls must pass through the Abyss of nothingness to be reborn and graduate into full Angelichood or otherwise stay in nothingness as any piece of infinity still equals infinity, likewise anything that can be immortal has always been immortal.  Any alien being that God did not create directly will be sent back through time and reincarnate as human so that they too have a chance to have a soul that can be saved.  All humans have a soul and DNA from Adam and Eve AS WELL AS THE ONES BORN FROM THE OUT OF THE STARS.  After 2012, the more that people kill each other, the quicker the Holy Spirit will leave and the sooner that Earth will begin to die and look like Mars, but without life.  Missing tribes of earth that committed human sacrifice were abductrd and taken to Mars to be mining slaves (according John Leer, Mars has a population of 600 million and that they look like us).  Since the Philosopher's Stone only extends ones life span a few hundred years, the fallen ones uses genetic engineering and steal fetuses from certain bloodlines, alters them and put them in pods and/or cattle.  The Terran Overlords (reptillians) went to Etheopia, met the Knights Templar and One of King Solomons Son so  as to establish the whole Davinci Code crap that people think that Jesus married Mary Magdelin and that their offspring are the Bluebloods.  One final note:  The physical universe is finite because if one establishes a number counter/ odometer  of a 4.5 GB DVD which would have roughly about ten billion place holders then for every time the next increment was advanced by 1 then a new DVD burned until all place holders are all 9's ( or 1's if binary) then all finite DVD's will have been burned and ALL possible realities that can be digitized will be a part of this massive and omnipotent library of DVD's (the Alpha Point and the Omega point).  So we are mankind fixing to enter into Angelichood through Jesus Christ (one does not have to believe in God, But does God believe in YOU! Are you within Congruous Volition) then after living millions of years then we as Angels will enter TRUE Godhood AND NOT UNTIL THEN.   Hopefully the alphabet gang from DC will ignore me and think I am just a nutty crackpot quack religous freak and not some kind of loose cannon that they think that they need to spend lots of money investigating me by sending wire taps through 202-677-3120.

If the company no longer exists, why did I get a call today?  Just curious.

Asking if I was registered to vote, and if I was registered to vote, was I going to vote to re-elect Barack Obama.  Please make them stop!  This must be Michelle Bachman or some other tea bagger nonsense.

try calling andrew browning at 202 669 9052...he is tied in with this same company and his boss is David E Holt at HPW Resources...try calling for him as well...they are from Houston ,Texas

try calling andrew browning at 202 669 9052...he is tied in with this same company and his boss is David E Holt at HPW Resources...try calling for him as well

They are calling my cell and I am charged for extra time and I don't like this.  THey will not let me call back into this number.

This number is making call on my cell number which cost me minutes.  Please remove my number or I will take legal action against you.

I just got this too! Like a threat on my voicemail...."we will call back"...talk about creepy!!!! What is this about!?

I received a call as well from the phone number asking if I was going to vote for Obama... NEGATIVE, I hung up....

got a missed call from 1-202-677-3120 on my cell phone and looking it up on Google, I found many others had received unwanted calls from this number.
Don't know them and do not appreciate the calls.

The only part of the message that was recorded was, "we may call again."  Deep mail voice

Just got a call from this number and ignored it on a hunch. Looks like they're calling a huge barrage of people today

DNC Registry does not apply to survey calls.

No-call does not apply to survey calls.

No-call list doesn't apply to surveys.

No-call doesn't apply to surveys -- however, they are required to keep an in-house no-call list, which they say they've put you on --

I got a call on my cell from this number asking me if I was planning to vote.  My number is listed on the DO NOT CALL registry because I do not want my cell minutes used by telemarketers!!!

I got the same stupid call and they hung up so I called back and it didn't ring or anything.  I'm so sick of these kind of calls!