Walden #SubCommTech Announces Hearings on IANA Transition ‘Privatizing the Internet Assigned Number Authority’ Today
WASHINGTON, DC – Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) announced in February that the subcommittee will continue its oversight of both the Federal Communications Commission and the administration’s work to transition certain oversight functions of the Internet to multi-stakeholder governance.
“The upcoming hearing with the FCC Commissioners will allow the committee to continue to exercise its critical oversight responsibilities over the FCC and to ask the hard questions.” said Walden. “Similarly, we will continue to exercise our oversight over the administration’s effort to transition its oversight of the Domain Name System to ensure that the Internet remains free and open for all users.”
Recently, the US Congressman Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) has sent a letter to ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade urging him to abandon plans to weaken the Internet for users in the United States and around the world
This is after listening to a December 21, 2015 interview with Fadi Chehade on National Public Radio. In the interview, entitled “U.S. Prepares To Relinquish Oversight Of Internet To International Body,” Duffy says he listened with great concern over Chehade’s dedication to weakening the Internet.
In 2015, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), along with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) requesting an affirmative determination of whether the Obama Administration’s plan to transfer U.S. oversight of the Internet violates the Constitution.
The subcommittee will hold its hearings on the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition on March 17 and an FCC oversight hearing on March 22. Additional information about both hearings will be posted HERE as available.
Witnesses
Dr. Alissa Cooper
Chair, IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group
Mr. Steve DelBianco
Executive Director, NetChoice
The Honorable David A. Gross
Former U.S. Coordinator, International Communications and Informational Policy, Wiley Rein LLP
Ms. Audrey Plonk
Director, Global Security and Internet Governance Policy, Intel Corporation
Mr. Matthew Shears
Representative and Director, Global Internet Policy and Human Rights Project
Ms. Sally Shipman Wentworth
Vice President, Global Policy Development, Internet Society
