Douglas Alexander: “the purpose of my remarks today is to suggest a way to come to a solution in the debate we have been having as to what…”

“the purpose of my remarks today is to suggest a way to come to a solution in the debate we have been having as to what extent Congress should interfere with State and local regulations and taxation of high-speed Internet access. In April, after a good many months of discussion, the Senate came to a good temporary compromise on the issue. Our legislation, the Senate legislation, allows States already collecting taxes on Internet access to continue to do so for 2 or 4 years, depending on the type of access tax. It makes clear that State and local governments can continue to collect taxes on telephone services, including telephone calls made over the Internet. Our work here in the Senate modified legislation that came over from the House of Representatives that would have permanently taken away from State and local governments authority to include high-speed Internet access in its taxation plans and would put at risk literally billions of dollars in revenues that States and cities and towns now depend on to pay for police, for schools, for parks, and for other essential local services. Both sides in this debate have legitimate points to make.”