NTIA Transition of IANA Functions Takes Hit After Approval of House Bills to Delay Transition
NTIA’s plan to transition the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority suffered potential setbacks Thursday, as two House committees approved separate bills that attempt to delay the transition. The House Commerce Committee approved the Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters (DOTCOM) Act (HR-4342) in a markup vote. The House Appropriations Committee approved a 2015 funding bill (http://1.usa.gov/1g09VBb) that reduced NTIA’s budget to $36.7 million and didn’t provide funds for the transition. The likelihood of the DOTCOM Act’s passage in the Senate is slim, said Internet governance experts in interviews.
"Protecting the core values of the Internet is a goal we all share, and this bill furthers that goal,” said House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., in a statement (http://1.usa.gov/1iw4MuV) after the DOTCOM Act’s approval. The bill seeks to delay NTIA’s transition of IANA functions for up to one year, until a GAO study is done (CD April 11 p2). Committee members Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Mike Doyle, D-Pa., introduced separate amendments to the bill, both of which were defeated. Eshoo’s amendment was a “substitute” for the bill that would have affirmed the multistakeholder model of Internet governance, she said. Doyle’s amendment allowed for GAO study, but didn’t “tie the hands” on NTIA’s transition, he said.
"How is a GAO study” going to influence Russia’s view of Internet governance, asked committee ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif. The “implications” of the transition need to be understood before we “cut this loose,” said Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. The bill takes a “trust but verify” approach to the transition, said committee Vice Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., one of the bill’s co-sponsors.
The bill’s “chances in the House are very good” and “very unlikely” in the Senate, said CEO Nao Matsukata of FairWinds Partners, a domain consultancy. “Unfortunately, this creates an impression of a divided country to our friends and allies” about the “direction of Internet governance” in the U.S., he said. “The faster that Congress and the administration can come together around a common vision for our role in Internet governance, the better for our national economic and security interests,” he said. The bill could be passed in the House, but it will be “DOA” in the Senate, as long as Democrats maintain control, said Phil Corwin, founding principal of e-commerce and intellectual property law consultancy Virtualaw, before the markup. The earliest the bill could pass the Senate would be next year, if one assumes the Republicans can take back a majority in elections later this year, he said.
The $36.7 million allocated to NTIA by the appropriations committee was $14.3 million less than requested by the executive branch, said the bill. The committee didn’t “include any funds to carry out a transition” of the IANA functions, it said. The transition “represents a significant public policy change and should be preceded by an open and transparent process,” it said. The committee “expects that NTIA will maintain the existing no-cost contract with ICANN throughout fiscal year 2015,” it said. The tentative deadline for the transition is September 2015.
The Appropriations Committee should provide funds for the transition, said a letter from Internet Association CEO Michael Beckerman to Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., and ranking member Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., Thursday. “It was always envisaged that this oversight role held by the United States would eventually transition to the private sector,” it said. “The announcement by NTIA is simply the fulfillment of this vision.”
"An appropriations bill is a way for Congress to stop something dead,” said Virtualaw’s Corwin, before the markup Thursday. Corwin neither endorsed nor criticized the bill. “If you try to block something that you think is bad,” the appropriations bill “may be the more promising approach,” he said. “That’s the power of the purse.”