Hearing of the Communications and Technology Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee - Markup of "A Bill to Affirm the Policy of the United States Regarding Internet Governance"

Hearing

Last Congress, both chambers passed a resolution directing our delegation at the World Conference on International Telecommunications "to promote a global Internet free from government control." That resolution helped unite the United States and more than 50 other countries in opposing treaty proposals that would subject the Internet to regulation at the hands of a United Nations agency and facilitate Internet censorship by foreign governments.

Such threats unfortunately continue to grow. That is why we are taking the language from last year that unanimously passed the House twice and the Senate once and converting it from a sense of Congress about a specific treaty negotiation to a general statement of U.S. policy. This is an important step in showing our nation's resolve and it will send an important signal to the international community. If we really meant what we said last year, there's no reason not to enshrine it in law. We were all in agreement last year, and we should continue to stand in agreement today.

I urge my colleagues to lock arms in a bipartisan showing of support for the current multi-stakeholder process that has served the Internet so well and vote for the same language we all agreed to last year in support of Internet freedom

Source