A year ago this month, under pressure from retail behemoths like WalMart and Amazon, Harry Reid and Dick Durbin rammed a bill called the Marketplace Fairness Act through the Senate.
Durbin and Reid did so after short-circuiting regular Senate procedures, and despite strong bipartisan opposition, with avowed liberals like Ron Wyden and outspoken conservatives like Ted Cruz standing side by side in opposing this bill.
Why? Because the Marketplace Fairness Act, as passed by the Senate, would unleash upon the Internet tax collectors from over 10,000 jurisdictions in a desperate quest for revenue. And in this quest, thousands of small online retailers – unable to cope with the legislation’s regulatory and tax burdens, would be put out of business.
Of course, that was exactly the goal of the army of Big Retail lobbyists, who sought to use the legislative process to eliminate their clients’ smallest online competitors.
But a year later, and contrary to the expectations of countless political prognosticators, it’s the opponents of the Marketplace Fairness Act who clearly have momentum on their side. This was most evident during a March hearing in the House Judiciary Committee on Internet Sales Tax proposals, when Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte called the MFA a ‘nonstarter’. But Chairman Goodlatte wasn’t the only skeptic in the room, as numerous members of his committee joined him in asking questions or making statements indicating their discomfort with the Senate’s legislation.
Even better, instead of taking up the Senate’s fundamentally unfair and entirely flawed bill, Chairman Goodlatte has proposed a thoughtful set of seven commonsense principles. Taken together, these provide a roadmap for a reasonable legislative outcome that provides a level playing field for all business regardless of whether they’re online, on the corner, or both.
Moreover, and much to the consternation of MFA supporters, small online retailers have begun to speak up. Just last week, more than 40 small online retailers took time away from running their businesses to travel to Washington and share with members of Congress their concerns about the Marketplace Fairness Act; more broadly, more than 12,000 small online retailers have joined the WE R HERE Coalition in an effort to ensure Congress doesn’t single out their businesses for unfair treatment.
And, Members of Congress are clearly listening. Long before the skepticism that greeted the Marketplace Fairness Act at March’s hearing, Senators and Representatives came together at a press conference last summer to publicize their opposition to the Senate’s bill.
But now, despite the outpouring of opposition from small business owners and Members of Congress, concern is growing that Senators Reid and Durbin will repeat last year’s stunt, and attempt to tack the Marketplace Fairness Act on to some other, unrelated, piece of legislation. After short-circuiting traditional Senate processes last year, it’s clear that Durbin and Reid recognize that MFA will not pass on its merits.
Instead of playing legislative games, the Senators – and MFA advocates in both chambers – should come back to the table and join Chairman Goodlatte in drafting a legislative proposal that provides a level playing field for all, not a boon for Big Retail.
