NTIA to Monitor IANA Transition; Won't Use Funds, Strickling Tells State of Net
NTIA won’t use its “appropriated funds to terminate the IANA functions contract with ICANN prior to the contract’s current expiration date,” said Administrator Larry Strickling at the State of the Net conference Tuesday. It was NTIA's first public statement on Congress' December funding measure prohibiting the agency from using its funds on the IANA transition. “Nor will we use appropriated dollars to amend the cooperative agreement with Verisign to eliminate NTIA’s role in approving changes to the authoritative root zone” before Sept. 30, said Strickling. “On these points, there is no ambiguity.”
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But the funding measure made it “clear that Congress did not expect us to sit on the sidelines this year,” Strickling said. “The act imposes regular reporting requirements on NTIA to keep Congress apprised of the transition process,” and NTIA will “actively monitor the discussions and activities within the multistakeholder community as it develops the transition plan,” he said. “We will participate in meetings and discussions with ICANN, Verisign, other governments and the stakeholder community with respect to the transition.”
Strickling reaffirmed NTIA’s commitment to a multistakeholder-driven transition, and asked several questions of the Cross Community Working Group on naming functions, which submitted a draft proposal Dec. 1. One of the group’s members, Donna Austin, told us last week that the group will probably submit its final proposal in six to eight weeks (see 1501210055). The draft recommended three to four new entities for the naming processes, said Strickling. “Could the creation of any new entity interfere with the security and stability of the DNS during and after the transition?” he asked: Can the group develop those entities in a “time frame consistent with the expectations of all stakeholders?” Strickling said Sept. 30 isn’t a “deadline,” but the ICANN community “should proceed as if it has only one chance to get this right.”
Also at the event, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel urged Congress to re-examine how it “accounts for airwaves,” saying unlicensed spectrum is the “best bet for innovation” and for improving Wi-Fi access. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said in a conversation with Coinbase CEO Fred Ehrsam that it’s “important” for Congress to understand virtual currencies like bitcoin. Goodlatte said bitcoin prices probably will continue to stabilize. The FCC has a “role to play” on net neutrality, but Congress can “make smarter decisions” than a “regulatory agency,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith said she’s focused on three areas: tech policy, digital government and open government. Tech policy includes privacy issues, net neutrality, spectrum auction and copyright, Smith said. Digital government involves finding ways to improve the digital records of federal agencies like the IRS, she said. Open government relates to open data sets like weather data, said Smith. She said she supports open source software and open application programming interfaces.
Although some House Commerce Committee members have “concerns” about the transition, they’re “happy” that many of their questions appear to have been “incorporated” in the transition proposal process, said David Redl, House Commerce Communications Subcommittee chief counsel. Those questions include the implementation of “stress tests” for the transition and addressing the question of what would happen if ICANN were to move its legal jurisdiction beyond the U.S., he said. Redl said he expects House Commerce Committee member John Shimkus, R-Ill., to reintroduce the Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters Act, and that GAO’s study on the potential impact of the transition is “well underway.” He also said ICANN’s accountability proposal process needs to coincide with the IANA transition proposal process.
The transition isn’t just about the multistakeholder governance, as Strickling seemed to suggest, said Milton Mueller, Syracuse University professor of information studies. The transition is also about “transnational, globalized governance by non-sovereign entities … in a fully globalized governance regime,” he said. Such a regime is “based on the sovereignty of Internet users and suppliers rather than the sovereignty of traditional national governments,” Mueller said. “It’s a very significant transition.”
The accountability of ICANN as a “policymaker” for the DNS is “very different” from ICANN’s accountability for implementing DNS policies, Mueller said, saying the distinction should be “clearly separated” in the IANA transition and accountability proposal processes. ICANN has a “bit of an interest in retaining” the IANA functions and shouldn’t be given “veto” power over IANA, he said. Redl’s comments suggest that the House is “moving away from trying to pre-empt the multistakeholder process” and is instead attempting to set “parameters” around the model,” Mueller said. “That’s the right thing to do.”
The transition’s proposed deadline won’t have a “negative impact” on the overall transition, said Theresa Swinehart, senior adviser to ICANN President Fadi Chehade. There’s “consensus” that the proposals have to be “right” rather than rushed, she said. NetChoice Executive Director Steve DelBianco said there hasn’t been any “foot dragging” by the ICANN community to develop the proposals. But the global community won’t accept the ICANN community having “nothing to show” by Sept. 30, said Andrea Glorioso, European Commission information and communications technologies attaché to the U.S.