NTIA Clears ICANN's IANA Transition Plans, Triggering Congressional Review

NTIA said ICANN's proposal has “broad support from the internet stakeholders, it will support and enhance the multistakeholder model, it will maintain the security, stability and resiliency of the domain name system, it will meet the needs and expectations of the global customers and partners of the IANA functions and it maintains the openness of the internet,” said NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling during a call Thursday with reporters. “Most importantly, the proposal meets another key condition, and that is it does not replace NTIA’s role with a governmental or intergovernmental solution.” ICANN's proposal also meets the standards of a GAO-recommended evaluation framework (see 1509180065), Strickling told reporters.

A NTIA-commissioned panel of corporate governance experts -- Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and professors from Brooklyn Law School and Columbia Law School -- said ICANN's recommended changes to its accountability mechanisms “are consistent with sound principles of good governance.” ICANN's accountability changes “are designed to enhance the accountability of the organization, while preserving the decentralized and multistakeholder nature of Internet governance,” the corporate governance panel said in a report attached to the NTIA assessment. “While these recommendations might not be well-suited for companies that prioritize efficiency and profits, or pursue a singular mission on behalf of a single, well-defined constituency, they are well-matched to the special needs and role of ICANN.”

ICANN must still implement some aspects of the IANA transition and must inform NTIA by Aug. 12 on how implementation is progressing, Strickling told reporters. Among other things, ICANN must successfully establish a direct link to root zone file maintainer Verisign before NTIA can remove itself from the verification process for root zone changes. ICANN and Verisign are now almost two months into a three-month testing period to evaluate whether data contained in the root zone file will remain reliable post-transition (see 1604110038), Strickling said. ICANN also needs to complete new direct agreements with regional internet registries, he said. Once ICANN reports back on implementation, NTIA can assess whether it needs to extend its existing contract with ICANN to perform the IANA functions past the current Sept. 30 expiration date, Strickling said.

Recent legislation and calls by members of Congress for NTIA to delay the transition generated most recent attention on Capitol Hill's examination of the transition, but the real battle will center on whether Congress decides to extend an existing ban on NTIA's ability to use its funding on the IANA transition into FY 2017, said Phil Corwin, principal of e-commerce and IP law consultancy Virtualaw. The House Appropriations Committee last month cleared a version of the FY 2017 Department of Commerce budget that would retain the IANA transition funding ban rider (see 1605240067). A Senate Appropriations Committee-cleared version of the FY 2017 Commerce budget doesn't include an extension of the rider, but stakeholders should watch for whether the rider is proposed when the Senate takes up the budget, Corwin said.

Much of Congress' review of the transition is likely to occur behind the scenes via letters and briefings like those that occurred between NTIA officials and key lawmakers in the days leading up to NTIA's announcement, but the review's proximity to the 2016 election campaign threatens to heighten the politicization of the transition debate, lobbyists said. In particular, there have been proposals for the Republican National Committee to add a plank to its national campaign platform that would call for a two-year delay of the transition, two lobbyists separately told us. Further politicization of the IANA transition debate wouldn't be “all that surprising in the middle of an election year,” Corwin said.

The results of NTIA's IANA transition review were widely anticipated but “it may well be that some congressional leaders who have been skeptical of this may be impressed by how robust the review report is,” said Wiley Rein telecom and Internet governance lawyer David Gross. The corporate governance panel's assessment of the transition plans may be particularly influential since “one thing that has been concerning to everyone is to answer the question of whether another government or intergovernmental organization could take over ICANN somewhere down the road. I think they answered that question very strongly.”

The NTIA's report “should reassure anyone who had lingering doubts about whether this proposal increases the power of governments or would allow censorship to creep into the domain name system,” said NetChoice Executive Director Steve DelBianco. The analysis “shows that our proposal effectively prevents capture of ICANN by governments. This report also gives confirmation to anyone who already believed the [transition] proposal was adequate that they were on the right track.”

NTIA's approval of the IANA transition plans is “an important recognition of entire [ICANN] community and its tireless work to reach this important milestone,” said ICANN Board President Steve Crocker in a blog post. “There is still more work to come, but this moment should serve as a validation of your time and effort in this process.” Multiple industry stakeholders lauded NTIA for clearing the transition plans, with some also cautioning Congress to not stymie the transition. “Our organizations agree that the proposals to transition ICANN from U.S. government stewardship to a bottom-up, multistakeholder model satisfy NTIA principles and provide the internet with the best path forward for self governance,” said the Computer and Communications Industry Association, Internet Association and the Internet Infrastructure Association in a joint statement. “It is important that Congress not artificially slow down the transition beyond the September 30 expiration of the current IANA contract.”​