Senate CR Includes Extending ISP Tax Moratorium

The Senate has released a version of a continuing resolution budget bill that would include an extension of the moratorium on Internet access taxes until Dec. 11.

The current moratorium, which was included in the first temporary spending bill passed last December, expires Sept. 30 unless a stop-gap extension is passed as part of the spending bill or independently.

Some Republicans have threatened to block passage of spending bills over funding of Planned Parenthood.

The Internet Tax Freedom Act expires periodically unless renewed. A bill that would make the moratorium permanent passed the House (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/washington/house-passes-permanent-...) over the objections of mayors, governors and telecom regulators and to the cheers of ISPs, but has not passed the Senate.

A hold-up for the permanent moratorium bill is that some in the Senate want it packaged with the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would give states and localities the ability to tax online sales.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.