IANA Transition May Occur by End of June 2016, ICANN CEO Tells Stakeholders

NTIA’s spinoff of its oversight of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions now appears likely to happen by the end of June 2016, said ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé Monday during the ICANN 53 meeting in Buenos Aires. ICANN’s IANA transition planning process, which includes work to modify the nonprofit’s accountability mechanisms, is to be the dominant topic throughout ICANN 53. Stakeholders also plan to focus during the meeting on the search for Chehadé’s successor as head of ICANN and on the future of ICANN’s generic top-level domains program. The meeting ends Thursday (see 1506190061). Chehadé said he’s basing his assessment that NTIA’s current contract with ICANN for the IANA functions may now end just over “a year from today” on feedback from ICANN community leaders on the current status of IANA transition planning.

NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling offered a similar transition timeline in a speech Sunday, saying NTIA’s own approval of ICANN’s transition proposal will likely take four or five months after ICANN submits its proposal. ICANN plans to complete work on its IANA transition proposal at its next meeting, Oct. 18-22, in Dublin. Strickling has been pressing ICANN for a more concrete assessment of when it believes it will have its IANA transition plan proposal completed so he can determine how long an extension NTIA should seek on its current contract with ICANN for the IANA functions, which is to expire Sept. 30. Strickling said Sunday that he's leery about pursuing a full two-year extension of NTIA’s ICANN contract because it has the potential to falsely signal flagging U.S. support for the IANA transition.

Strickling said that he anticipates NTIA will need to wait up to two months after it completes its review of the IANA transition plan to allow for congressional review if the Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters (DOTCOM) Act (HR-805/S-1551) is enacted. The DOTCOM Act would give Congress 30 legislative days to review a report from NTIA certifying that ICANN’s IANA transition plan meets U.S. standards on guaranteeing Internet openness. Chehadé said Monday that he's also anticipating that congressional review of the IANA transition plan could last up to 60 days, depending on how Congress structures the 2016 legislative calendar.

The House appears likely to pass HR-805 (see 1506190063) when it considers the bill Tuesday under suspension of the rules, while the Senate Commerce Committee said Monday that it plans to mark up S-1551 during an executive session Thursday (see 1506220052). The Internet Governance Coalition, which includes AT&T, Comcast and Google as members, voiced its support Monday for S-1551. It “strikes a thoughtful balance between having the multi-stakeholder process continue to determine how best to handle the IANA transition and related changes to ICANN, while recognizing the need for appropriate and timely Congressional oversight,” the coalition said.

Chehadé and other members of the ICANN board urged the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability) Sunday to consider the potential for unintended consequences as it finalizes its proposal on changing ICANN’s accountability mechanisms. Chehadé said that if those changes are too sweeping, they have the potential to destabilize the nonprofit. CCWG-Accountability should ensure “that we don’t inadvertently create a model that gives special interests power” nor mistakenly “re-anchor” ICANN within the U.S. jurisdictional system, Chehadé said. “This model should survive the scrutiny of time.” The ICANN board similarly urged CCWG-Accountability in comments filed earlier this month (see 1506040052) to simplify its accountability proposal. The board didn’t intend its comments to signal opposition to the CCWG-Accountability’s draft accountability proposal, board Chairman Steve Crocker said. “There’s a natural assumption that there’s a tension between the board and the community” where ICANN accountability is concerned, but that “isn’t true on the board’s side,” he said.

CCWG-Accountability is “moving closer to a consensus” on its final proposal, group co-Chairman Thomas Rickert said on Sunday. CCWG-Accountability will factor in the comments filed earlier this month and feedback collected during ICANN 53 into the final proposal, he said. The draft proposal CCWG-Accountability submitted for public comment didn’t depict full group consensus, but comments from the ICANN board and other stakeholders indicate that there’s “a lot of traction” on the general approach to providing additional governance powers to the ICANN community, Rickert said.

CCWG-Accountability's final proposal needs to provide more concrete details on many of the community powers CCWG-Accountability is proposing, ICANN board Finance Committee Chairman Cherine Chalaby said. He said specific mechanisms need to avoid potential unintended consequences, particularly CCWG-Accountability’s proposal to give the ICANN community the power to veto ICANN’s board-approved annual budget. A poorly devised mechanism for veto power over the budget has the potential to lead to budgetary paralysis if ICANN community members feel free to vote against each others’ interests, Chalaby said.