‘For the sake of our economy, for the sake of our competitiveness, and for the sake of consumers who don’t want to see new taxes on their bills – we need to ban taxes on internet access permanently’



Washington, D.C. –U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor Thursday prior to asking for unanimous consent to allow a vote on the Sununu bill which would create a permanent ban on taxation of access to the internet:



“Mr. President, in just 13 days the internet tax moratorium will expire.



“If Congress hasn’t acted by then, state and local governments will be free to impose new taxes on Internet access – and trust me, they will.



“We need to be straight with the American people about what’s happening here — that the Senate Majority wants to preserve the possibility of taxing access to the Internet.



“The internet has transformed this country. It’s cleared new pathways to learning for rich and poor. It’s brought a level of efficiency and innovation to the shop floor, the home, and the corner office that were unimaginable just a decade ago. Just think of the millions of middle class Americans who’ve lifted their fortunes through online auction sites or made their first stock purchases over online trading sites.



“The internet’s been at the heart of America’s economic growth over the past decade—all because government hasn’t gotten in the way. But those days are over if we let our Democratic colleagues open the Internet to new taxes.



“We can’t let it happen. For the sake of our economy, for the sake of our competitiveness, and for the sake of consumers who don’t want to see new taxes on their bills – we need to ban taxes on internet access permanently.



“The House of Representatives has sent us a bill that would extend the moratorium for four years. Frankly, I don’t think that is long enough.



“If we all agree that taxing Internet access hurts consumers, hurts innovation, hurts broadband deployment, why stop at four years?



“Why not keep I.T. tax-free forever?



“So Mr. President, I say to my friends on the other side – the clock is ticking.



“If you object to considering the Sununu bill to make the moratorium permanent – let’s take up the House-passed bill with a couple of relevant amendments in order. One would make the moratorium permanent, and failing that, one would extend it for substantially longer than four years.



“We can debate these amendments quickly and vote – to see where the Senate stands on this very important question of keeping the Internet free of onerous taxes.



“We can do it this week, Mr. President, or next week – but the Senate must act before the moratorium expires in 13 days. And it is my intention to have a vote on the question of whether the moratorium should be extended permanently, or merely for another four years.”



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