IANA Transition Delay Proposal Lengthens Senate CR Negotiations
Senate leaders remained divided Tuesday in negotiations on the short-term continuing resolution to fund the government when FY 2016 ends Sept. 30. Leaders of both parties said a proposal to attach language to the resolution that would delay the planned Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition is a top point of contention. The proposed CR language would extend an existing rider in the Department of Commerce's FY 2016 budget that bars NTIA from using its funds during the fiscal year to execute the IANA transition. Capitol Hill debate over the transition has been seen as turning markedly partisan as the planned Oct. 1 transition date drew nearer (see 1606090067 and 1609090062).
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., rescheduled a planned afternoon first procedural vote on the CR until later Tuesday, telling reporters he believes “we are close to finalizing an agreement that we can go to the floor on.” McConnell said that “at this point, it's safe to say we'll be here next week.” McConnell initially hoped to adjourn the Senate last week. Negotiations on the CR “have taken a little longer than I anticipated,” he said.
The changeover funding ban rider remains a live proposal for inclusion in the CR, said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D. Thune is one of several Senate Republicans who support attaching the rider extension to the CR (see 1609130050). The transition debate “is going to have to be resolved one way or the other before the end of the month, and [the CR] is the only way to do that,” Thune told reporters. “I think there's actually support on both sides for doing something to slow down the transition.” There's “a legitimate concern that [the transition is] not quite ready yet and … we don't have the political consensus around this issue that would allow the transition to occur,” Thune said. “The wise thing to do right now would be to delay, and putting a provision into the CR that would prevent the transition from occurring at the end of the month would allow that to happen.”
Senate Democratic leaders vigorously opposed the switch's funding ban rider inclusion in the CR Tuesday. Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called Senate Republicans' handling of CR negotiations a “mad rush” to quickly adjourn the body so embattled incumbents would have more time to campaign before the November election. Reid cited the continuing presence of “vexatious poison-pill riders” in the current CR proposal. “This is not the time … for talking about how we change the internet forever,” Reid said. “It's not the time to satisfy Cruz because he doesn't get along with the caucus and they're trying to shut him up. We're not going to do that,” he said of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a leading transition critic. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told reporters that opposition to the rider “is our position and it's [President Barack Obama's] position. We want a clear CR.”
Cruz continued to push for the cutover funding ban rider to be included in the final CR, telling reporters he hasn't ruled out standing firm on the issue even if it risks a government shutdown. “I understand that there is nothing [congressional Democratic] leadership likes more than invoking the word 'shutdown'” amid budgetary negotiations, Cruz said. The transition debate should remain focused on one question -- “do we maintain current law and protect online freedom, or is Congress going to acquiesce” to the White House's preference to let the transition proceed as planned, Cruz said. A Senate Judiciary Oversight Subcommittee hearing last week that Cruz chaired delivered anticipated fireworks but was seen as not shifting the debate on whether to delay the transition (see 1609140062).