Rick Allen: “Right. There were a great deal of concerns, I think the Senator from North Dakota might recollect, in the Commerce…”

“Right. There were a great deal of concerns, I think the Senator from North Dakota might recollect, in the Commerce Committee about what was exempt or what was prohibited from taxation or what did the moratorium prohibit taxation upon. There were many concerns. They were generally handled, in my view, adequately by the managers' amendment that Senator McCain had, that came out of the Finance Committee. That made sure what was to be taxable and what was not taxable because there were concerns that somehow personal property taxes, real estate taxes, corporate taxes, income taxes, and so forth, would be prohibited on companies that are involved in providing Internet service. Our concern is making sure that whomever your Internet service provider is in Washington, DC, when you get to, say, Los Angeles and there is a slew of other Internet service providers there with a lot of competition, in between they don't own all of this. Somebody has to get this routed electronically. So that routing of that electronic e-mail, so to speak, or those bits, should not be taxed. It is looking at this message as being a car, an automobile. You could drive across this whole country on an interstate that is a freeway. The Alexander-Carper amendment would turn that into a toll road. So you wouldn't go this way unless you were lost or taking some scenic route.…”