Senate and House Chairs Call for Administration to Reconsider ICANN Internet Transition

Senate Committee on the Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), in a letter to US Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, raised numerous concerns about plans for the Obama Administration to cede authority over the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions managed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and called for reconsideration of the transition, currently set to occur on October 1, 2016.

“The transition of the IANA functions to the global multi-stakeholder community is a serious, groundbreaking, and potentially unalterable action,” said the four chairmen in the letter to Lynch and Pritzker. “We have closely examined the arguments for and against the proposed transition, including concerns about whether the transition could enhance the role of authoritarian regimes in Internet governance. In particular, we have heard from witnesses testifying to concerns that important accountability measures have yet to be fully fleshed out, tested, or proven, because they will not have been implemented prior to September 30, 2016.” In addition to concerns about the status of accountability reforms inside ICANN, the four chairmen also cited recent violations of ICANN’s own bylaws by board members, questions about the application of anti-trust laws, the potential for an independent ICANN to move outside the jurisdiction of the United States, and unfinished work by the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) in determining the legal authority for the federal government to relinquish its current role in IANA functions without express authorization from Congress.