Howard P. "Buck" McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. WELCH. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman from Vermont is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. WELCH. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong opposition to the Shimkus amendment. The amendment is identical to H.R. 4342, the DOTCOM Act of 2014. It would arbitrarily delay the transition of the United States' role in the management of the global Internet domain name system to the multistakeholder community.

It really does represent a very drastic departure from the support Members of this body have expressed for the multistakeholder model of Internet governance. In fact, despite the House of Representatives already voting unanimously three times in the past 2 years calling on the Obama administration to commit to a global Internet free from government control, the Shimkus amendment sends the exact opposite message by raising doubts about the strength and credibility of the multistakeholder approach.

NTIA's recent transition announcement will complete our 16-year-long effort to move management of the domain name system away from governments and into the private sector.

This objective has been the linchpin of U.S. policy, bipartisan through the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations, and the entire rationale for having ICANN, a private U.S.-based nonprofit organization created in 1998 to assume key responsibilities for Internet functions on behalf of the Internet's multistakeholder community.

Some of my colleagues raise the specter of Russia or China taking over the Internet as a reason for supporting this amendment. These threats against Internet openness are real, but claiming this amendment does anything to address them is false.

In fact, by creating an artificial delay in the implementation of the consensus transition plan produced by ICANN, the Shimkus amendment suggests governmental meddling in the multistakeholder process is entirely appropriate.

The reverse is true. Authoritarian regimes are already using the U.S. Government's stewardship of technical Internet functions as evidence for a need to move these functions to another governmental or intergovernmental entity like the United Nations.

This amendment further plays into the hands of these antidemocratic nations by emboldening their efforts to seize control of the Internet.

So I would say to my colleagues to support this amendment or the DOTCOM Act, they either show a lack of understanding of what our government's role actually is or a lack of confidence in the multistakeholder model and its ability to resist governmental control. Both serve to weaken our role in the global stage, not strengthen it.

The best defense we have against a governmental takeover of the domain system is to empower our allies in the multistakeholder community. Our diplomats, who have fought hard to preserve an Internet free from governmental control in global forums, tell us that having this transition is a critical continuation of our efforts to build upon the success of the multistakeholder model.

Now is the time to continue our unwavering support of that model. I strongly urge my colleagues to oppose the Shimkus amendment.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. WELCH. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Illinois.

You know, we are pretty proud of the Internet. We want to keep it free and nongovernmental control. Multistakeholder basically means all of the stakeholders who have a stake in the Internet are going to be at the table having a discussion about how we are going to resolve this situation.

There is an apprehension that I don't think is well-founded that is reflected in this amendment. It is really, essentially, about delaying the process of these ongoing negotiations that have to occur in a very complicated global system which is called the Internet.

So the House has voted on this three times before. It has indicated its support through the Clinton, the Bush, and the Obama administrations. Every one of those Presidents, I think, shares the concern that every one of us in this House have about maintaining a free and open Internet. We have got to get on with the job.

Our view is that the Shimkus amendment would create confusion and delay and impede our ability to get to an end result that will make the Internet more secure, more free, and more open.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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