John Conyers: “I rise against multiple and discriminatory taxes of any kind and especially in this area of the Internet. Secondly, I…”

“I rise against multiple and discriminatory taxes of any kind and especially in this area of the Internet. Secondly, I congratulate the authors of the Watt-Cannon amendment that attempts to clarify the ban on Internet access taxes, and it applies not only to dial-up Internet service, but also to high-speed cable. When we passed the ban on access taxes in the mid 1990's, no one considered that we could access the Internet over other than the telephone. This bill resolves the ambiguity, and I have other reasons to commend the authors of Watt-Cannon, but right now I support the bill. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this legislation. This bill makes permanent a moratorium on internet access taxes as well as multiple and discriminatory taxes on the internet that we first passed as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. It is difficult to justify multiple and discriminatory taxes under any circumstances, on the Internet or otherwise, so I am glad to join in bipartisan support of this legislation.”