Congressman Blake Farenthold (R-TX) released the following statement in support of Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Chairman John Culberson's letter to the Honorable Penny Pritzker, Secretary of the Department of Commerce, stating "Section 539 of the Fiscal Year 2016 Omnibus prohibits funds provided in the Act from being used to relinquish the NTIA's (National Telecommunications and Information Administration) responsibility for the authoritative root zone file and the IANA functions "
"I applaud Chairman Culberson's letter to the Secretary of Commerce reminding the Secretary that the Fiscal Year 2016 Omnibus directly prohibits funds to be used to transition critical functions of the Internet to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)," Congressman Farenthold said. "The United States has long protected the Internet from improper control by foreign governments and, as Chairman Culberson said, "bad actors.'"