Congress votes to bar state and local governments from taxing Internet access.
President likely to sign bill that also revamps trade laws
WASHINGTON — Congress voted Thursday to permanently bar state and local governments from taxing access to the Internet, as lawmakers leapt at an election-year chance to demonstrate their opposition to imposing levies on online service.
By 75-20, the Senate gave final congressional approval to the wide-ranging bill, which would also revamp trade laws. President Barack Obama is ex- pected to sign it.
“The Internet is a resource used daily by Americans of all ages,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who brokered an agreement earlier this week that helped clear the way for passage. “It’s important that they be able to do all of this without the worry of their Internet access being taxed.”
The ban on local Internet access taxes had broad support. Even so, some lawmakers remained un- happy over its trade provisions and because the measure omitted a separate, more controversial proposal to let states force online retailers to collect sales taxes for their transactions.
Since 1998 in the Internet’s early days, Congress has passed a series of bills temporarily prohibiting state and local governments from imposing the types of monthly levies for online access that are common for telephone service. Such legislation has been inspired by a popular sentiment that the Internet should be free, along with Republican opposition to most tax proposals.
Until now, states that imposed Internet access taxes have been allowed to continue. Under the approved bill, those states would have to phase out their taxes by the summer of 2020.
Seven states — Texas, Hawaii, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin — have been collecting a combined $563 million yearly from Internet access taxes, according to information gathered by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
Forty-nine Republican and 26 Democratic senators backed the legislation Thursday while 17 Democrats and three Republicans voted no.
The House approved the compromise in December with the backing of nearly all Republicans but just 24 Democrats.
The White House did not immediately provide a statement on whether Obama would sign the measure despite lawmakers’ widespread expectations that he would.
That seemed to reflect the difficult political balancing act Democrats faced between a popular ban on Internet access taxes and trade provisions many of them considered insufficient or harmful.
The legislation, especially its trade provisions, has pitted the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups supporting the bill against opponents including the AFL-CIO and other labor organizations.
Supporters say the mea- sure would strengthen U.S. trading by improving protections for American intellectual property like copyrights and trademarks and upgrading trade law enforcement at the country’s borders.
They also cite provisions reinforcing the government’s ability to head off China and other countries from manipulating currency to make their exports more affordable and cracking down on imported products made with child labor.
Democrats disliked provisions barring trade agreements that would curb some efforts to restrict greenhouse gas emissions, or would force the U.S. to revamp its immigration laws.