The Focus of Today's Session will be the Internet Tax Moratorium

            4:00 P.M.         

The Senate has adjourned for the weekend and will return on Monday, November 17, 2003.

            3:20 P.M.         

Senator Bond, Senator Chambliss, Senator Kyl and Intelligence Committee Chairman Senator Roberts, have spoken on the floor about activities of the Senate Intelligence Committee. 

            2:30 P.M.         

Senator Frist is currently speaking on the floor about the Intelligence Committee and the war in Iraq.  There will be no further roll call votes this afternoon.   

            11:30 A.M.         

Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey is speaking on the floor as if in a period of morning business. He is discussing the procedure known as partial birth abortion.

            11:00 A.M.         

The Senate continues to debate the Internet Tax Moratorium. In 1998, the Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA) was enacted to impose a temporary moratorium on certain taxes that could have a detrimental effect on the continued expansion of Internet use in the United States, including taxes on Internet access, double taxation (for example, by two or more states) of a product or service bought over the Internet, and discriminatory taxes that treat Internet purchases differently from other types of sales. The moratorium enacted by the ITFA was extended until this November. S.150 would extend permanently the current Federal moratorium on State and local taxation of Internet access under the ITFA and to ensure that the moratorium is applied in a technology neutral fashion.

            9:30 A.M.         

The Senate will begin this morning with consideration of the Internet Tax Moratorium, S.150. In addition, the Senate may begin debate of H.R.1828, the Syria Accountability Act, later today.

Appropriations vs. Authorization: While the power over appropriations is granted to Congress by the U.S. Constitution, the authorization-appropriation process is derived from House and Senate rules. The process consists of two sequential steps: (1) enactment of an authorization measure that may create or continue an agency or program as well as authorize the subsequent enactment of appropriations; and (2) enactment of appropriations to provide funds for the authorized agency or program.