DOTCOM Act Breezes Through House Communications Subcommittee

In only a few minutes and with applause all around, the House Communications Subcommittee favorably, and unanimously reported out a new version of the DOTCOM Act, a bill that provides a framework for congressional oversight of the transition of the Internet domain naming function from US oversight to a multistakeholder model. The act had drawn hefty criticism from Democratic Representatives since its introduction in 2014, but the two sides worked out a compromise that preserved Congress' oversight role without unduly delaying the hand-off.

In May, in a hearing on the bill and the handoff, Ranking Member Anna Eshoo (D-CA) said it would unnecessarily delay the handover and send the wrong signal about government control to other countries. She was sounding a different note in her opening statement at the June 10 markup, calling a vote for the revised DOTCOM Act "a vote to carry on the extraordinary success story that is the Internet, ensuring that billions of people around the world will continue to benefit from everything it has to offer."