Ron Wyden: “let me try to describe briefly for the Senate where we are with respect to the important issue coming up now on the…”

“let me try to describe briefly for the Senate where we are with respect to the important issue coming up now on the length of the moratorium. As Chairman McCain and my colleague, Senator Dorgan, noted, the two issues we have been trying to deal with, the question of grandfathering in existing States and localities and the length of the moratorium are linked, and we think we have a fair process in place now for resolving the two important issues. I would like to tell my colleagues why I think it is important that we go with the McCain amendment on the length of the moratorium. The legislation, when I introduced it in March of 1997, did not specify how long the moratorium should last. When we considered it in the Senate Commerce Committee, after a very lengthy debate and, in effect, taking a break for 5 or 6 months after the hearings were held to try to work with Senators on both sides of the aisle, the Senate Commerce Committee voted out legislation that set in place a 6-year moratorium. As Senators know, the Finance Committee then went forward with its legislation and imposed a 2-year moratorium. In a sense, this moratorium isn't even the most accurate way to describe it because even during this period Internet transactions were treated exactly like any other transaction. We have heard discussion of how, in some way, the legislation would create some sort of special tax haven for the Internet, and that is simply not the case.”