The Senate advanced a U.S. customs and trade enforcement bill on Thursday that includes a permanent ban on taxing access to the Internet.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., ushered the bill to the floor after promising he’ll also move to a separate measure that would allow state governments to collect online sales taxes from out-of-state retailers.
McConnell wouldn’t identify a specific date for the online sales tax measure, known as the Marketplace Fairness Act, but his pledge to bring it to the floor in 2016 was part of a deal that helped move the customs bill. The Senate voted to end debate on the customs bill 73-22 Thursday morning, and Senate passage of the customs is expected later, which will clear the measure for the president’s signature.
The long-awaiting customs bill passed the House last year after a conference meeting with the Senate to iron out differences.
Some Democrats, however, do not support the inclusion of the Internet tax freedom provision in the bill, and in the past they had threatened to strip it out of the underlying legislation, and argued it was unrelated.
Local government officials have lobbied against the Internet tax provision because, they say, it would cost them hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue and take away their taxing authority.
McConnell pointed out that Congress has extended a temporary Internet tax freedom bill eight times.
“This is another tax relief measure we have done in drib and drabs,” McConnell said. “This would make it permanent. It’s another important accomplishment of this majority.”
The underlying bill would overhaul the nation’s trade and customs law by increasing enforcement of intellectual property rights and the ban on currency manipulation.
The bill lacks broad Democratic support, and only 24 Democrats backed it in the House. Party lawmakers say the bill does not go far enough to address currency manipulation by China and other countries, which they say hurts the U.S. economy and has killed jobs.
