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Union Calendar No. 409
106th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 3489
[Report No. 106-725, Parts I and II]
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to regulate interstate commerce
in the use of mobile telephones and to strengthen and clarify
prohibitions on electronic eavesdropping, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
November 18, 1999
Mr. Pickering (for himself, Mr. Markey, Mrs. Wilson, Mr. Largent, and
Mr. Tauzin) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on the
Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker,
in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the
jurisdiction of the committee concerned
July 11, 2000
Additional sponsors: Mr. Dingell, Mr. Fossella, Mr. Oxley, Mr. Sununu,
Mrs. Cubin, Mr. Stearns, Mr. Gillmor, Mr. Ehrlich, Ms. McCarthy of
Missouri, Mr. Blunt, Mr. Shays, Mr. Boucher, Mr. Wynn, Mr. Deal of
Georgia, Mr. McHugh, Mr. Sweeney, Mr. Coburn, and Mr. Gonzalez
July 11, 2000
Reported from the Committee on Commerce with an amendment
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed
in italic]
July 11, 2000
Reported from the Committtee on the Judiciary with amendments,
committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the
Union, and ordered to be printed
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed
in boldface roman]
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on
November 18, 1999]
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A BILL
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to regulate interstate commerce
in the use of mobile telephones and to strengthen and clarify
prohibitions on electronic eavesdropping, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Wireless Telecommunications Sourcing
and Privacy Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) The provision of mobile telecommunications services is
a matter of interstate commerce within the jurisdiction of the
United States Congress under Article I, Section 8 of the United
States Constitution. Certain aspects of mobile
telecommunications technologies and services do not respect,
and operate independently of, State and local jurisdictional
boundaries.
(2) The mobility afforded to millions of American consumers
by mobile telecommunications services helps to fuel the
American economy, facilitate the development of the information
superhighway and provide important safety benefits.
(3) Users of mobile telecommunications services can
originate a call in one State or local jurisdiction and travel
through other States or local jurisdictions during the course
of the call. These circumstances make it more difficult to
track the separate segments of a particular call with all of
the States and local jurisdictions involved with the call. In
addition, expanded home calling areas, bundled service
offerings and other marketing advances make it increasingly
difficult to assign each transaction to a specific taxing
jurisdiction.
(4) State and local taxes imposed on mobile
telecommunications services that are not consistently based can
subject consumers, businesses and others engaged in interstate
commerce to multiple, confusing and burdensome State and local
taxes and result in higher costs to consumers and the industry.
(5) State and local taxes that are not consistently based
can result in some telecommunications revenues inadvertently
escaping State and local taxation altogether, thereby violating
standards of tax fairness, creating inequities among
competitors in the telecommunications market and depriving
State and local governments of needed tax revenues.
(6) Because State and local tax laws and regulations of
many jurisdictions were established before the proliferation of
mobile telecommunications services, the application of these
laws to the provision of mobile telecommunications services may
produce conflicting or unintended tax results.
(7) State and local governments provide essential public
services, including services that Congress encourages State and
local governments to undertake in partnership with the Federal
government for the achievement of important national policy
goals.
(8) State and local governments provide services that
support the flow of interstate commerce, including services
that support the use and development of mobile
telecommunications services.
(9) State governments as sovereign entities in our Federal
system may require that interstate commerce conducted within
their borders pay its fair share of tax to support the
governmental services provided by those governments.
(10) Local governments as autonomous subdivisions of a
State government may require that interstate commerce conducted
within their borders pay its fair share of tax to support the
governmental services provided by those governments.
(11) To balance the needs of interstate commerce and the
mobile telecommunications industry with the legitimate role of
State and local governments in our system of federalism,
Congress needs to establish a uniform and coherent national
policy regarding the taxation of mobile telecommunications
services through the exercise of its constitutional authority
to regulate interstate commerce.
(12) Congress also recognizes that the solution established
by this legislation is a necessarily practical one and must
provide for a system of State and local taxation of mobile
telecommunications services that in the absence of this solution would
not otherwise occur. To this extent, Congress exercises its power to
provide a reasonable solution to otherwise insoluble problems of multi-
jurisdictional commerce.
SEC. 3. AMENDMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS ACT OF 1934 TO PROVIDE RULES FOR
DETERMINING STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT TREATMENT OF
CHARGES RELATED TO MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES.
(a) In General.--The Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 151 et
seq.) is amended by adding at the end thereof the following:
``TITLE VIII--STATE AND LOCAL TREATMENT OF CHARGES FOR MOBILE
TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES
``SEC. 801. APPLICATION OF TITLE.
``(a) In General.--This title applies to any tax, charge, or fee
levied by a taxing jurisdiction as a fixed charge for each customer or
measured by gross amounts charged to customers for mobile
telecommunications services, regardless of whether such tax, charge, or
fee is imposed on the vendor or customer of the service and regardless
of the terminology used to describe the tax, charge, or fee.
``(b) General Exceptions.--This title does not apply to--
``(1) any tax, charge, or fee levied upon or measured by
the net income, capital stock, net worth, or property value of
the provider of mobile telecommunications service;
``(2) any tax, charge, or fee that is applied to an
equitably apportioned amount that is not determined on a
transactional basis;
``(3) any tax, charge, or fee that represents compensation
for a mobile telecommunications service provider's use of
public rights of way or other public property, provided that
such tax, charge, or fee is not levied by the taxing
jurisdiction as a fixed charge for each customer or measured by
gross amounts charged to customers for mobile telecommunication
services;
``(4) any generally applicable business and occupation tax
that is imposed by a State, is applied to gross receipts or
gross proceeds, is the legal liability of the carrier, and
statutorily allows the taxpayer to elect to use the sourcing
method required in this Act; or
``(5) any fee related to obligations under section 254 of
this Act.''.
``(c) Specific Exceptions.--This title--
``(1) does not apply to the determination of the taxing
situs of prepaid telephone calling services;
``(2) does not affect the taxability of either the initial
sale of mobile telecommunications services or subsequent
resale, whether as sales of the service alone or as a part of a
bundled product, where the Internet Tax Freedom Act would
preclude a taxing jurisdiction from subjecting the charges of
the sale of these mobile telecommunications services to a tax,
charge, or fee but this section provides no evidence of the
intent of Congress with respect to the applicability of the
Internet Tax Freedom Act to such charges; and
``(3) does not apply to the determination of the taxing
situs of air-ground radiotelephone service as defined in
section 22.99 of the Commission's regulations (47 C.F.R.
22.99).
``SEC. 802. SOURCING RULES.
``(a) In General.--Notwithstanding the law of any State or
political subdivision thereof to the contrary, mobile
telecommunications services provided in a taxing jurisdiction to a
customer, the charges for which are billed by or for the customer's
home service provider, shall be deemed to be provided by the customer's
home service provider.
``(b) Jurisdiction.--All charges for mobile telecommunications
services that are deemed to be provided by the customer's home service
provider under this title are authorized to be subjected to tax,
charge, or fee by the taxing jurisdictions whose territorial limits
encompass the customer's place of primary use, regardless of where the
mobile telecommunication services originate, terminate or pass through,
and no other taxing jurisdiction may impose taxes, charges, or fees on
charges for such mobile telecommunications services.
``SEC. 803. LIMITATIONS.
``This title does not--
``(1) provide authority to a taxing jurisdiction to impose
a tax, charge, or fee that the laws of the jurisdiction do not
authorize the jurisdiction to impose; or
``(2) modify, impair, supersede, or authorize the
modification, impairment, or supersession of, the law of any
taxing jurisdiction pertaining to taxation except as expressly
provided in this title.
``SEC. 804. ELECTRONIC DATABASES FOR NATIONWIDE STANDARD NUMERIC
JURISDICTIONAL CODES.
``(a) Electronic Database.--A State may provide an electronic
database to a home service provider or, if a State does not provide
such an electronic database to home service providers, then the
designated database provider may provide an electronic database to a
home service provider. The electronic database, whether provided by the
State or the designated database provider, shall be provided in a
format approved by the American National Standards Institute's
Accredited Standards Committee X12, that, allowing for de minimis
deviations, designates for each street address in the State, including
to the extent practicable, any multiple postal street addresses
applicable to one street location, the appropriate taxing
jurisdictions, and the appropriate code for each taxing jurisdiction,
for each level of taxing jurisdiction, identified by one nationwide
standard numeric code. The electronic database shall also provide the
appropriate code for each street address with respect to political
subdivisions which are not taxing jurisdictions when reasonably needed
to determine the proper taxing jurisdiction. The nationwide standard
numeric codes shall contain the same number of numeric digits with each
digit or combination of digits referring to the same level of taxing
jurisdiction throughout the United States using a format similar to
FIPS 55-3 or other appropriate standard approved by the Federation of
Tax Administrators and the Multistate Tax Commission, or their
successors. Each address shall be provided in standard postal format.
``(b) Notice; Updates.--A State or designated database provider
that provides or maintains an electronic database described in
subsection (a) shall provide notice of the availability of the then
current electronic database, and any subsequent revisions thereof, by
publication in the manner normally employed for the publication of
informational tax, charge, or fee notices to taxpayers in that State.
``(c) User Held Harmless.--A home service provider using the data
contained in the electronic database described in subsection (a) shall
be held harmless from any tax, charge, or fee liability that otherwise
would be due solely as a result of any error or omission in the
electronic database provided by a State or designated database
provider. The home service provider shall reflect changes made to the
electronic database during a calendar quarter no later than 30 days
after the end of that calendar quarter for each State that issues
notice of the availability of an electronic database reflecting such
changes under subsection (b).
``SEC. 805. PROCEDURE WHERE NO ELECTRONIC DATABASE PROVIDED.
``(a) In General.--If neither a State nor designated database
provider provides an electronic database under section 804, a home
service provider shall be held harmless from any tax, charge, or fee
liability in that State that otherwise would be due solely as a result
of an assignment of a street address to an incorrect taxing
jurisdiction if, subject to section 806, the home service provider
employs an enhanced zip code to assign each street address to a
specific taxing jurisdiction for each level of taxing jurisdiction and
exercises due diligence at each level of taxing jurisdiction to ensure
that each such street address is assigned to the correct taxing
jurisdiction. Where an enhanced zip code overlaps boundaries of taxing
jurisdictions of the same level, the home service provider must
designate one specific jurisdiction within such enhanced zip code for
use in taxing the activity for that enhanced zip code for each level of
taxing jurisdiction. Any enhanced zip code assignment changed
in accordance with section 806 is deemed to be in compliance with this
section. For purposes of this section, there is a rebuttable
presumption that a home service provider has exercised due diligence if
such home service provider demonstrates that it has--
``(1) expended reasonable resources to implement and
maintain an appropriately detailed electronic database of
street address assignments to taxing jurisdictions;
``(2) implemented and maintained reasonable internal
controls to promptly correct misassignments of street addresses
to taxing jurisdictions; and
``(3) used all reasonably obtainable and usable data
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