House members renew bill on Internet tax ban

A bipartisan group of House members on Friday renewed legislation to kill the expiration date on a law that bars states from taxing Internet access. 

The noncontroversial proposal passed by voice vote last year but got tied up in the Senate. Both chambers settled on a yearlong extension of the law that was originally passed in 1998. 

“Year after year, Congress has chosen to temporarily extend the bipartisan ban on Internet access taxes. The time has come to make this ban permanent,” Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) said in a statement. 

“Passage of this bill would ensure that millions of consumers will not be burdened with an increase to their monthly Internet bills due to new state and local access taxes,” added Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), another sponsor of the bill. 

Reps. Tom Marino (R-Pa.) and Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) also co-sponsored the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act. 

A pair of high-ranking senators have vowed to move the legislation in the upper chamber this Congress. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) leads the Senate Commerce Committee, while Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.) is the ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee. 

Some lawmakers last year attempted to tie a long-term extension of the law to a separate proposal that would allow states to collect online sales tax from purchases made anywhere in the country. 

The effort to marry the two bills set off a showdown with the House, resulting in the short extension that expires in October.