Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. CHAFFETZ. Madam Speaker, I thank Chairman Goodlatte for bringing this piece of legislation forward, and I appreciate the bipartisan manner in which it is done.

The Internet is working. It is working. It is one of the great things about our economy. It is one of the great things that is happening in this country. It is creating jobs, and it is creating excitement with the younger generation. It is providing for innovation. We are leading the world in what we are doing.

Access is not necessarily available to everybody. We have people from inner cities to Indian reservations to rural communities to those who are just seeking to try to be part of this community and have access and get information and be informed and be educated and allowed to engage in commerce.

Since 1998, this has been the position of the United States of America, and if you look at the Internet, it truly is interstate commerce. We can be standing side by side, right next to each other, and you can send a tweet or a Facebook message or an email, whatever sort of electronic communication, and it literally can zoom around the country--hopefully through Utah--and then back to the person standing right next to you.

But in order for all that to work, the magic of the Internet and all that to work, it needs to be unimpeded. It needs to keep those costs as low as possible to ensure the maximum amount of access so those in our communities who are still trying to get in there, from our seniors, the rural communities, again, to our inner cities.

The wisdom that happened in 1998 has been reaffirmed multiple times. Only two people in the history of this piece of legislation have ever voted against this piece of legislation. The majority of the House of Representatives are cosponsors on this piece of legislation that is before us today. So, I urge its passage.

There are some other pieces of legislation that I would like the body to look at. I think we do have to deal with the remote sales tax issues. I think there are transactions that happen remotely. I would like to see parity in that--another topic for another day, but something that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.

The issue before us today is are we going to allow the freedom for Internet access to happen at the lowest cost possible without the government coming in and thinking, oh, this is another bucket of funds that we can just tax on. The consequence is we would have less people involved and engaged. Companies are going to take care of this, but individuals who are trying to access the Internet, we need to keep those costs as low as possible.

Think about your telephone bill. We don't want that to be lit up. You know how that is lit up with all these different taxes. We don't want the Internet to be lit up like a Christmas tree with all these different taxes. It is interstate commerce. It is the purview, I think, of the United States Congress. That is why this bill is so needed. That is why I proudly joined as a cosponsor and why I urge its passage today.

And again, I thank Chairman Goodlatte and Members on both sides of this body for bringing this bill forward. I urge its passage.

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