Customs Reauthorization Expected to Move Forward
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., filed cloture (here) to limit debate on the customs reauthorization bill, HR-644, a step towards a final vote on the Senate floor expected Feb. 11. Despite the momentum, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., remains opposed to the bill’s inclusion of a provision that would extend the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act (PITFA), he said in Feb. 10 interview. Alexander plans to vote against a motion to advance customs for a final vote on Feb. 11. Last month, Alexander teamed up with Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., in seeking lawmaker support for raising a point of order that PITFA is outside the bill’s scope (see 1601140004).
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Alexander also said he’d vote against the customs bill itself if the motion proceeds. “I’m voting against it,” Alexander said. “I think it’s wrong for Washington to tell states what their tax structures ought to be.” The House passed the customs reauthorization legislation, on Dec. 11, following the PITFA extension language’s inserted into the bill’s conference report after it was omitted in both chambers’ original versions of the bill (see 1512110029).
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters on Feb. 9 that he hopes floor debate on a point of order to strip the PITFA provisions can be avoided. McConnell during a Feb. 9 press conference at the Capitol pledged to move forward on Marketplace Fairness Act legislation, in hopes of bringing it to a vote by the end of this year, he said. Alexander and Durbin, as well as industry groups such as the National Retail Federation, had been supporters of combining the permanent ITFA extension with the more controversial MFA, pending legislation that would allow state governments to collect sales and use taxes from retailers with no physical stores in their states. “I don’t know for sure what the Democrats are going to do, but I think our members, as you heard Senator McConnell say today, those who care about [the] Marketplace Fairness [Act], believe that they’re going to get their opportunity to have their vote sometime later this year,” Thune said. “And given that, I hope are going to refrain from points of order or procedural votes that might prevent that from passing. It’s important we get this done.” NRF in an email said they support the Senate Majority’s vow to hold a separate vote on Internet sales tax collection.
Alexander said he considers PITFA's inclusion within the customs bill and the eventual movement on MFA to be “two separate issues.” Still, “I’m very glad that he’s going to schedule that vote,” Alexander said. “That’s encouraging to me, because it involves many of the same issues.” Yet indicating an unwillingness to relent on his opposition to PITFA, he also noted that he hopes his vote to strike down the motion to vote on HR-644 succeeds so that a point of order wouldn’t be necessary.