Thune, Shimkus Raise Concerns About Cruz's DOTCOM Act Hold
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Tuesday that he’s trying to convince Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to withdraw his hold on the Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters Act. Cruz placed a hold on S-1551 because he believes the “important concerns” he raised during Senate Commerce’s markup of the bill about the need for Congress to hold an up-or-down vote on the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition haven’t been addressed (see 1507200068). Aides to Sens. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said separately that their offices hadn’t also placed holds on S-1551. Fischer and Sullivan were two of the four Senate Commerce members who voted for Cruz’s amendment that would have required a vote on the IANA transition.
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“We’ve been discussing it with [Cruz's] staff and I’ll be having conversations him and hopefully we’ll get him to conclude that this is something that needs to be done, and the House will want to move that bill and get it on the president’s desk,” Thune said. Cruz’s amendment isn't “a significant difference” from what was in the House bill, Thune said. “We ought to be able to get this thing processed.” The Senate has “some deadlines looming that we need to get ahead of and what the House sent us, I think, was a solid bill,” Thune said. “We had a big vote coming out of the committee.”
Cruz’s hold “only undermines Congress’s role” in overseeing the ongoing IANA transition process, said Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., in a statement Tuesday. Without congressional action, the White House “is under no obligation to renew the existing U.S. contract with ICANN or to consult with Congress at all before relinquishing oversight of the DNS,” said Shimkus, the main sponsor of S-1551’s House-passed equivalent (HR-805). The DOTCOM Act would give Congress 30 legislative days to review a report from NTIA certifying that ICANN’s forthcoming IANA transition plan meets U.S. goals on Internet openness. “Once a congressional review period is required by law through the DOTCOM Act, additional legislation action can be taken based upon the details of ICANN’s proposal, NTIA’s certification, and the ongoing GAO investigation,” Shimkus said.