Bush Seeks More High-Speed Internet Access, Tax Ban

President Bush on Monday urged the U.S. Congress to make Internet access permanently tax free and to reduce regulations so high-speed access can be universally available by 2007.

Bush complained that the United States was ranked 10th in the deployment of broadband, or high-speed access. To help boost that rank, he signed an order for the government to make it easier for broadband facilities to be built on federal land.

"If you want broadband access throughout the society, Congress must ban taxes on access," Bush told the American Association of Community Colleges annual convention. "Clear out the underbrush of regulation and we'll get the spread of broadband technology and America will be better for it."

Bush's broadband push coincides with debate beginning in the U.S. Senate on whether to renew or make permanent a ban that bars taxes on Internet access. Lawmakers are split on whether a ban would boost innovation and the roll-out of new technologies or deprive states and local governments of much needed funds.

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