Darlene Hooley: “in October of 1998, we overwhelmingly passed the Internet Tax Freedom Act, a law to keep the heavy-handed government…”

“in October of 1998, we overwhelmingly passed the Internet Tax Freedom Act, a law to keep the heavy-handed government taxes off the Internet. We passed this law because we all know that if we overburden e-commerce by taxing it, it will never achieve its full economic potential. This 3-year moratorium has worked. Over the past years, the growth of Internet use has been tremendous. The number of Internet users doubles every 100 days according to the U.S. Department of Commerce and accounts for 15 percent of our total economic growth. Many of us are talking about closing the digital divide. What better way to make the Internet more affordable for everyone than by extending this tax moratorium. With the rapid growth of the Internet and the economic benefits that it brings, use of the Internet should not be restricted by multiple and discriminatory taxes. That is why this legislation to extend the Internet tax moratorium for 5 years is so important. I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.”