House passes extension of Internet tax ban

The House passed a bill that would permanently extend a ban on state and local taxes on Internet access.

Lawmakers approved the legislation on a voice vote, which would also ban discriminatory taxes on e-commerce. The ban, first passed in 1998, has required a series of extensions over nearly two decades. But the latest proposal would put the law in place for the long term, removing any sunset date. The long-term extension is largely noncontroversial. The House bill sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) had 188 co-sponsors, and 50 senators are backing a similar bill in the Senate. The House easily passed the proposal last Congress, but it stalled in the Senate after some members attempted to tie the measure to a more controversial online sales tax bill, which would give states the power to collect a sales tax from businesses that don’t have a physical presence in their boundaries. Tying the two items together faced resistance in the House in 2014 and would prove harder in the current Congress, now that Republicans control the Senate.