Two retail industry associations are urging federal lawmakers to oppose legislation preventing states from collecting sales taxes from most internet purchases.

The No Regulation Without Representation Act by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) would prohibit states from collecting sales taxes from sellers if the company has no physical presence within a state's borders. The bill would enshrine in law a current legal controversy about what powers states have to tax businesses outside their jurisdictions.

Brick-and-mortar retailers have long supported giving states the authority to collect internet sales taxes. They argue online sellers have an unfair competitive advantage by not being required to add taxes to products and services. In a statement, the National Retail Federation said Sensenbrenner's bill represents "the reverse of what Congress should be doing."

"As online sales become a larger percentage of total retail sales, it is imperative that policymakers recognize that… government should not favor remote sales over sales made in a bricks-and-mortar store," NRF Senior Vice President for Government Relations David French said.

The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the bill Tuesday. The Retail Industry Leaders Association called the bill a step backwards that would end progress that all sides have made toward resolving the tax issue.

"Instead of updating our tax code to reflect modern-day commerce, the bill being debated today would codify government picking winners and losers, and preserve a loophole that continues to distort free market competition," RILA Executive Vice President of Federal Government Affairs Jennifer Safavian said.

The legislation has supporters. In a statement, the e-commerce industry association NetChoice said online retailers "are under assault by more than a dozen states seeking to adopt onerous and unworkable sales tax collection regimes."

"States should not be allowed to regulate businesses beyond their borders, whether it is imposing sales tax obligations, labeling, or other regulatory restrictions and mandates on business that are not located within their borders," the group said.

President Donald Trump recently weighed in on the issue of internet taxes, but as part of his larger war of words against the Washington Post. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns the newspaper, so Trump has accused Amazon of "not paying internet taxes" in tweets retaliating against the Post's reporting.

Amazon did spend years finding creative ways to avoid collecting sales taxes on products purchased through its site, but recently the company has pledged to collect taxes and now supports a federal law requiring other online retailers to do the same.

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