Senate Commerce Approves DOTCOM Act Without Cruz Amendment
The Senate Commerce Committee cleared the Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters (DOTCOM) Act (S-1551) Thursday on a voice vote. It fended off an amendment that would have required an up or down vote from the House and Senate on ICANN's forthcoming Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition plan (see 1506230066). S-1551 and its House-passed version (HR-805) would give Congress 30 legislative days to review an NTIA report on whether ICANN's IANA transition plan meets U.S. goals on Internet openness. Meanwhile, ICANN stakeholder groups charged with developing plans related to the IANA transition reported progress on those plans Thursday during the ICANN 53 meeting in Buenos Aires.
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Senate Commerce voted 19-5 against the amendment giving Congress a vote on the IANA transition, sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. That followed a speech in which he said S-1551 as written would let Congress “do nothing” during the DOTCOM Act's 30-day review period before “handing over control of the Internet” via the spinoff of NTIA's oversight of the IANA functions. “If it is a good idea consistent with U.S. national security interests to hand over -- to give away -- the Internet, then Congress should debate that and approve it,” Cruz said. “We should act affirmatively to protect the Internet” given that NTIA's current contract with ICANN states that the IANA functions are U.S. government property, he said. Cruz argued that Department of Justice lawyers “will certainly argue” that passage of the DOTCOM Act nullifies the ICANN contract and U.S. government claims on the IANA functions after that 30-day review by Congress ends.
Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., led opposition to Cruz's amendment during the committee's S-1551 markup, saying the bill's current language gives Congress the ability to protect the U.S. commitment to multistakeholder Internet governance. “If something happens that draws into question whether or not these requirements we put in the bill have been met, Congress has the opportunity to step in and intercede,” Thune said. Cruz's amendment would have resulted in the loss of “fairly delicate” Democratic support for compromise language in the DOTCOM Act and might have resulted in President Barack Obama's veto, Thune said.
Cruz's office didn't comment on whether he will reintroduce his amendment once S-1551 reaches the Senate floor, with his spokesman referring us back to Cruz's speech during the Senate Commerce markup. “Congress should have final say” on the IANA transition, but blocking passage of the DOTCOM Act “because it requires only Congressional notification would be a mistake,” said TechFreedom President Berin Szoka in a news release. “Really, Senate Democrats should be the ones pushing this issue: 31 of them just joined Cruz in voting to block Fast Track Authority out of concern that giving Congress an up-or-down vote on trade deals didn’t go far enough.” Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning called Senate Commerce's rejection of the Cruz amendment a “surrender” of congressional authority to the White House. “Nobody in Congress has seen ICANN’s proposal to commandeer Internet governance from the U.S. government, but [Senate Commerce] has blindly just authorized whatever plan they might come up with,” Manning said in a statement. NCTA praised Senate Commerce approval of S-1551, saying it “helps further the growth of the Internet with the protection and Congressional oversight needed to guide the transition from IANA oversight to the multistakeholder model.”
Meanwhile, ICANN's Cross Community Working Group to Develop an IANA Stewardship Transition Proposal on Naming Related Functions (CWG-Stewardship) received approvals from all five ICANN chartering organizations (COs) to move forward on a final version of its IANA transition plan proposal, said CWG-Stewardship co-Chairman Jonathan Robinson during an ICANN meeting. The COs' clearance of the CWG-Stewardship revised draft proposal means that group can move toward submitting the proposal to the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) for further review, Robinson said. ICG is expected to review the CWG-Stewardship proposal and seek clarification on any questions by July 8, with CWG-Stewardship then set to meet July 9, Robinson said.
The Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability), which is working on a package of proposed changes to ICANN's accountability mechanisms that would give ICANN community members additional powers over ICANN board decisions, has “advanced the discussion a long way” on its proposal work over the course of the ICANN 53 meeting, said CCWG-Accountability Co-Chairman Thomas Rickert. The group hasn't completed work on its accountability proposal, but has narrowed down the debate on an ICANN membership structure to two competing membership models. The group can “see there's a balance and we can flesh them out” with independent legal advice, Rickert said. He urged CCWG-Accountability members to continue work toward a compromise on accountability by a planned July 17-18 group meeting in Paris that is meant to revise the accountability proposal prior to a new round of public comment.