Political Quotes

“Chairman McCain, I and others who have worked on this effort to try to find common ground thought it was important early on to begin efforts to find some areas of agreement that would bring the sides together. Let me outline 10 particular areas of compromise we have essentially offered in the managers' proposal. I, for example, strongly believe there should be a permanent ban on multiple and discriminatory taxes on Internet access. But in the name of trying to find a compromise, now we have a 4-year moratorium. We have a 3-year phaseout of the grandfather clause. This was something that was important to the States. We have a 2-year grandfather of taxes on DSL. Again, as I talked earlier, that is the technology of the future. A fourth compromise reflects the concern about voiceover. What we have done is clarified that our legislation is not going to affect taxation of voice communication services utilizing the voiceover Internet protocol. We have clarified the taxes that would be covered, addressed a number of concerns the States had with respect to income and property taxes. We want to make sure those taxes, those opportunities for State and local revenue are protected. We clarified the House language on DSL which was something State and local groups complained was too open-ended and vague. With respect to the bundling of services, States and localities asked for a clear and uniform accounting rule. We protected universal services.”