Hill Joins 85 House Republicans in Call to Stop Internet Transfer

Press Release

Today, Congressman French Hill (AR-02) and 85 other House Republicans wrote to Department of Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker urging her to reconsider the administration's decision to relinquish America's authority in promoting free speech and open discourse on the Internet.

The Department of Commerce recently issued an assurance that the United States will not lose control over the .mil, .gov, .edu, and .us domains after it relinquishes control of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The U.S. Government has no statutory authority over ICANN or the domain name system; however the U.S. Government does maintain a limited authority over these entities, which experts describe as administrative and clerical.

According to the Congressional Research Service, the Internet community sees the U.S. Government's role as a "backstop," which reassures stakeholders that the U.S Government can be a check on ICANN in the event of a crisis. Further, others have also raised concerns as to whether ICANN is capable of operating on its own following the transition.

"America's current role with respect to the domain name system serves as an important security blanket, and I believe the U.S Government should continue its current role as a guardian of Internet integrity," said Hill. "This is why I cosponsored H.R. 5418, the Protecting Internet Freedom Act, because we need to keep the U.S. Department of Commerce in its current role over ICANN."

"At the very least, this transition should be delayed until any concerns regarding potential foreign influence are answered and the administration can ensure definitively ICANN has the ability to protect and manage Internet domains without government oversight," said Hill.

In the letter to Secretary Pritzker, the members stated:

"As you may be aware, the Senate did not include language clarifying the intent of section 539 of the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016 (Division B of P.L. 114-113), in the short-term continuing resolution that they released on September 22.

Despite the lack of clarifying language in the Senate's proposed short-term continuing resolution, we believe that Congressional intent with regards to section 539 (in last year's Omnibus) is clear. As Members of Congress, we expect the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to maintain its current role with respect to Internet domain name system functions, including responsibility with respect to the authoritative root zone file and the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions.

"We urge you to take all appropriate action to ensure the continuation of NTIA's current responsibilities before the existing contract expires on October 1. While we appreciate your assurances regarding the .mil, .gov, .edu, and .us domains, we urge you to take action this week to maintain NTIA's current responsibilities over all Internet domain name functions.

"We strongly disagree with President Obama's plans to move forward with the IANA stewardship transition. Numerous concerns remain regarding ICANN's readiness to enforce its own policies, address concerns raised by the Internet's stakeholders, and resist pressure from foreign governments intent on limiting speech and the flow of information on the Internet.

"The United States has always maintained responsibility for administrating the critical functions of the Internet. Maintaining this responsibility for IANA functions at NTIA will help ensure that we continue to protect the Internet from foreign governments, international organizations and bad actors.

"If you had complied with the spirit of section 539 -- which President Obama signed into law -- there would be no transition on October 1. Therefore, we urge you in the strongest terms to not allow the IANA functions contract to expire on October 1."

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