A bipartisan pair of leading senators are fighting to enact a permanent ban on taxing Internet access that they believe could be approved during the next Congress, according to The Hill.
Speaking on the Senate floor Monday, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) expressed confidence that the new Congress could pass such a permanent ban, an issue that he and Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) have been pushing for years.
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“I am very hopeful that next year, a permanent — a permanent — version of the Internet Tax Freedom Act will be enacted,” explained Wyden. “Sen. Thune and I are going to continue to work together on a bipartisan basis until that is done.”
Wyden, who currently leads the Senate Finance Committee, stressed the fact that he and Thune may be able to achieve the feat thanks to their “seniority” next year. Thune will lead the Commerce Committee in the new Congress.
Thune has said he hopes such a bill will be “considered as early as possible in the next Congress.”
The temporary 1998 Internet Tax Freedom Act was extended for one more year in the CRomnibus passed by Congress this past weekend, one of the many extensions it has received over the last several years.
The law inhibits the majority of states from slapping a tax on Internet access.
Wyden labeled a permanent bill preventing an Internet access tax “essential to our economic competitiveness,” while Thune said that an expiration of the temporary ban would “risk canceling out our other efforts to get more Americans online.”
Though the House voted in favor of a ban on taxing Internet access this summer, the bill’s counterpart in the Senate has not moved forward.
