![Congress extends Internet tax ban](https://www.jurist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/jurist-white-text.png)
[JURIST] By a voice vote Friday, the US House of Representatives passed a Senate bill that reinstates until 2007 a ban on all state and local taxes aimed at monthly usage fees paid by customers to Internet service providers. President Bush is expected to sign the bill. While opponents argued that the ban's expiration in 2003 would allow states to regain tax revenue lost by customers substituting Internet use for telephones and postal mail, supporters warned that the imposition of state taxes might thwart the growth of the Internet. As proposed legislation to make the ban permanent never solidified, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) said of the compromise, "Without any action by this Congress…the Internet economy and its participants are more vulnerable, even if we must act on a weaker bill…" Reuters has more.