Political Quotes

“as the amendment clearly states, its purpose is to establish to the extent possible under our rules that the moratorium, whatever this body decides its initial length will be, will be that length and that we will not fall into a situation of a ``fluid'' moratorium, with efforts each year made to extend it further and further. This amendment does not go to the issue of what the length of the initial moratorium shall be. The bill before the Senate today, which is the product of the Senate Finance Committee, provides for a 2-year moratorium. There are amendments filed which would extend that up to 5 or 6 years. There are no amendments filed which would reduce the period of the moratorium. So it is fair to suggest that we will be dealing with the moratorium of at least 2 years, possibly longer. The purpose of this amendment is to assure to the extent possible that once we have made that decision, that will be the decision. The underlying premise of this bill is an unusual one for the U.S. Congress--not unique, but rarely used. That is, we are about to consider legislation which would preempt every State and every local government in this country, for a period of time, from exercising their otherwise legal powers relative to taxation on Internet access and transactions which are undertaken through the use of the Internet.”