U.S. House of Representatives Votes ‘YES ‘Once Again to Deny IANA Transition Funds
The U.S. House of Representatives voted once again to deny funds to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to perform the transfer. The voting was done on 3rd June 2015 on the Bill titled “Making appropriations for Commerce and Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, FY 2016”
Section 536 of the now-passed $51 billion Commerce, Science, and Justice appropriations bill states, “None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to relinquish the responsibility of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration with respect to Internet domain name system functions, including responsibility with respect to the authoritative root zone file and the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority functions.”
Similar language was enacted last year, defunding the Internet giveaway through September 30, 2015. The new language would make the prohibition permanent, keeping Internet governance under Commerce Department oversight for the foreseeable future.
In September 9th, Congressional leaders unveiled a 1,603 page, $1.01 trillion FY 2015 appropriations bill to fund the U.S. government through the end of September 2015. One provision of the omnibus bill would delay the IANA transition until after the September 30, 2015 expiration of the current contract between the NTIA and ICANN.
