Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for providing the time, and I want to thank her for her good work.

I also want to thank the chairman of the committee for bringing this bipartisan bill, which is bipartisan. I signed on to this bill, I guess, with Representative Eshoo and maybe Representative Goodlatte, back in 2007 because it is my belief that the Internet is a necessity, and it is a necessity in minority communities who need that outreach to information, whether it is educational or commercial, to reach out and be a part of the society. Without the Internet, you can't do that.

Now, the gentlewoman from Texas and my State, Tennessee, neither have an income tax, and therefore, our governments rely on taxes that tend to be regressive. I think Tennessee is the most regressive State in the country on its taxes, very high sales tax.

And the local governments will reach out for anything they can find to tax to make up for the fact that our State doesn't have a progressive tax base.

I want to protect my constituents against regressive taxes at all levels and protect them against taxes that might limit their potentiality of getting access to the World Wide Web and information they need.

So I am proud to be a sponsor of this, to work with the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot), with whom I have worked on so many bills together, trying to get the Delta Queen going back down the river and all these other things, and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte), the chairman on the Judiciary Committee. I thank them for their work and hope they will all vote for this in a bipartisan fashion. I hope the Senate will, as they did on the USA FREEDOM Act, follow the lead of the House and show that the House leads.

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