NTIA, ICANN Heads Defend IANA Transition As Critical to Multistakeholder Internet Governance

The leaders of NTIA and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) told the House Communications Subcommittee Wednesday that the best way to sustain multistakeholder Internet governance is to allow the two entities proceed with transitioning oversight of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). NTIA, which currently oversees ICANN’s administration of IANA and domain name system functions, said last month it plans to transition its current oversight role to a global multistakeholder group once ICANN and others develop an acceptable governance plan. Several House Republicans and FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, also a Republican, have criticized the NTIA plans, with O'Rielly saying Tuesday that it “raises some serious concerns that must be addressed prior to moving forward” (CD April 2 p8).

Both NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling and ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé said Wednesday those concerns were based on misconceptions about NTIA’s current role in IANA oversight and ICANN’s operations. NTIA oversight is largely symbolic, after 16 years of work to devolve federal government involvement with IANA, Strickling said. ICANN took over administrative control of IANA as part of that privatization, and has operated the IANA functions without any government interference, Chehadé said. The NTIA transition is the “culmination” of those privatization efforts, which “shows the world America’s values again,” he said.

Planning for the transition began at an ICANN conference in Singapore last week, but both Chehadé and Strickling said there’s no rush to make the transition. NTIA set a nominal deadline to complete the IANA transition by the end of the current ICANN contract on Sept. 30, 2015, but Strickling said the agency has the option to renew that contract for up to two two-year periods beyond that if additional time is needed to complete a satisfactory governance plan. “It’s more important to get it right than to rush it,” Chehadé said. Both leaders pledged to make the transition run smoothly, with Chehadé saying ICANN’s work on the transition plan will occur through “an open and transparent process, which is “calm and wise."

Republicans, led by Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said they are skeptical NTIA could prevent foreign governments from exerting influence over IANA governance post-transition. Chehadé and Strickling had both said they would not accept a transition plan that involved intergovernmental governance of IANA. “Freedom of the Internet and the global implications of this transition are far too important to let slip away because of another broken promise,” Upton said. “There is no going back once we relinquish our oversight."

Upton and Walden voiced support Wednesday for the Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters Act (HR-4342), which would “prohibit” NTIA from transitioning its IANA oversight until the GAO completes a report for Congress about the transition’s potential effects. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., introduced the bill last week in response to Republicans’ concerns about the IANA transition (CD March 28 p20). Shimkus pressed Strickling and Chehadé on whether they would oppose a GAO review of potential transition outcomes, saying he believed a report would “resolve some of the fear.” Strickling said he would “neither support nor oppose it,” but noted that he “in favor of full discussion of these issues.” Chehadé said he had no opinion on a GAO review but again pledged full transparency in ICANN’s creation of the transition plan. Wiley Rein lawyer David Gross, a former top State Department telecom official under President George W. Bush, speaking on behalf of the Internet Governance Coalition, told Shimkus “more information is better.”

Committee Vice Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., one of the cosponsors of HR-4342, said President Barack Obama’s administration is “not setting a good example” by promoting multistakeholder Internet governance while the FCC simultaneously attempts to redo its net neutrality rules. The FCC is in the process of redrafting the net neutrality rules after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit struck down major portions of the current rules earlier this year (CD April 2 p2). “What kind of message is this administration sending if the FCC continues to push forward with regulation of the Internet” via the net neutrality rules? she asked. If the Obama administration wishes to continue with the IANA transition, it “must immediately begin to end net neutrality proceedings,” Blackburn said.

Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., expressed concerns Republican opposition to the IANA transition hurt international confidence in the process. “Everything we say, everything we do is being measured,” Eshoo said. The reaction Congress gives to the IANA transition is certainly on the minds of delegates at the ITU-led World Telecommunication Development Conference, which runs through April 10 in Dubai, said Gross, a member of the U.S. delegation to the conference. Gross was also a member of the U.S. delegation to the controversial 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications. “The world is watching,” he said.