House Communications Planning March 17 Hearing on IANA Transition Status
The House Communications Subcommittee is planning a March 17 hearing on the status of ICANN’s Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition plan, a House Commerce Committee aide told us Friday. House Commerce later confirmed that the IANA transition hearing is…
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set for March 17, but provided no additional details on the hearing. House Communications "will continue to exercise our oversight over [NTIA's] effort to transition its oversight of the Domain Name System to ensure that the Internet remains free and open for all users," said House Communications Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., in a statement. The House Communications hearing would occur a week after the ICANN board is set to vote on the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group’s IANA transition plan and the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability’s (CCWG-Accountability) related proposal for changes to ICANN’s accountability mechanisms (see 1602250053). Expectations had been growing that a congressional hearing on the IANA transition would occur after the ICANN board’s vote, particularly given recent criticism from GOP presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, about retiring ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé’s involvement with the Chinese government-led World Internet Conference (see 1602220066). It’s likely that NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling will testify at the House Communications hearing, but it’s less clear which ICANN official will testify, an industry lobbyist told us. Chehadé is expected to leave ICANN March 15, at which point ICANN Global Domains Division President Akram Atallah will become acting CEO. ICANN selected Swedish Post and Telecom Authority Director-General Göran Marby in early February to permanently replace Chehadé, but he won't take the reins until May (see 1602080066).