August 09, 2001 House Subcommittee Passes the E-Fairness Buck An Internet tax bill has finally made it out of committee in Washington, DC, but it was not the bill that proponents of e-fairness were hoping for. However, leading players in the fight to level the playing field between Internet and bricks-and-mortar retailers remained confident that losing this early legislative skirmish would not scuttle the chances of securing passage of e-fairness legislation during this Congressional session. On August 2, the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law passed the "Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act" (H.R. 1552), sponsored by Representative Christopher Cox (R-CA) and sent the bill on to the full Judiciary Committee, which is expected to consider it in September, after the Congressional recess. The proposed law extends the current ban on any new taxes on Internet purchases, but it does not address the issue of the collection of sales tax on Web-based transactions. During the subcommittee debate, Representative Melvin Watt (D-NC), proposed an amendment to H.R. 1552 that would have both encouraged states to simplify their sales tax regulations and would have promised that Congress would consider the collection of sales tax on e-commerce sales once 25 states had agreed on sales tax regulation changes. However, Watt's amendment was ruled non-germane by the Subcommittee chair, Representative Bob Barr (R-GA). For e-fairness supporters, however, the fight is far from over. Following the Subcommittee vote, Watt said he would reintroduce his amendment when the full Judiciary Committee considers the bill. "This is a minor-league trial period. We get to the major leagues next," he said, as reported by Reuters. Lisa Cowell, executive director of the E-Fairness Coalition, noted to the Washington Post that she was not disappointed with the Subcommittee vote. "This was barely a skirmish in the fight," she said. ABA and a number of the regional booksellers associations, as well as many other retailers and businesses nationwide, are members of the e-Fairness Coalition. -Dan Cullen Topics: Internet Commerce, Sales Tax Initiative, News - Bookselling,