Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

Madam Chair, I rise in strong support of H.R. 4660, the fiscal year 2015 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies appropriations bill. I wish to highlight one area under the jurisdiction of this committee and germane to this bill: U.S. stewardship and the Internet.

U.S. stewardship of the Internet's critical functions has allowed the World Wide Web to safely flourish and expand to endless horizons, enabling new ideas to spread and new markets to grow all over the world. It is clear that we have a duty to keep the Internet and its benefits to people worldwide fully safe from hostile powers overseas who seek to impede the free flow of information.

I am deeply concerned with the Obama administration's recent announcement that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), an agency of the Department of Commerce, intends to relinquish control over the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and ``to transition key Internet domain name functions to the global multistakeholder community.'' Thus I introduced H.R. 4367, the Internet Stewardship Act of 2014, to ensure that Congress has the final say in any such transfer of stewardship.

The committee report for H.R. 4660 notes that ``[a]ny such transition represents a significant public policy change and should be preceded by an open and transparent process'' and recommends no funds to be used by NTIA to carry out this transition. I agree. Specifically, the Obama administration must address a number of pressing concerns and demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that its plan will accomplish crucial objectives, including but not limited to the following:

Ensure that ICANN does not fall under the control of authoritarian governments such as Russia or China or UN organizations such as the International Telecommunications Union (ITU),

Create effective oversight of ICANN through the rigorous auditing of ICANN's finances and activities by an independent body, and

Confirm that ICANN has the technical capability to maintain the authoritative root zone and the ability to block any malicious attack on it.

Unless the Obama administration demonstrates, to the satisfaction of the Congress, that its plan to transfer stewardship over these key Internet functions fulfills the common sense requirements described above and other key goals set forth by Congress, such transfer shall not take place.

I urge my colleagues to vote for this important legislation.

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