Byron Dorgan: “I have, beginning with the origin of this bill in the Senate Commerce Committee, been very concerned about exactly what…”

“I have, beginning with the origin of this bill in the Senate Commerce Committee, been very concerned about exactly what the language in this legislation will mean to this country, to our Main Streets, to our States and local governments. The issue here is a relatively simple one, and I don't need to restate all of the reasons that were offered by the Senator from Wyoming for being concerned about it. But the genesis of this bill was to be concerned about State and local governments applying 'punitive' tax programs against Internet commerce. They were worried that this growth of the Internet and the expansion of commerce on the Internet would be retarded by local governments or State governments, seeing that as a big, juicy target, and apply some kind of new discriminatory or punitive tax regime upon it. Therefore, they said, let us at least have a time-out until we understand how to impose some sort of tax system that is fair to the Internet sellers and that does not discriminate against the Internet sellers.”