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Kelly Bill to Keep .gov & .mil Websites in American Control Featured in Washington Examiner

June 14, 2016

Securing America's Internet Domains Act crucial for US cybersecurity

WASHINGTON — Legislation introduced by U.S. Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA)  to preserve exclusive and permanent U.S. ownership and control of the .gov and .mil Internet domains – the Securing America's Internet Domains Act (SAID) of 2016 (H.R. 5329) – was featured yesterday by the Washington Examiner.

Excerpts from the article:

Foreign spies might take advantage of the current plan to remove the Internet's governing body from American control, unless the Obama administration ensures that military and government website domains are totally secure, according to a House Republican lawmaker.

"Cybersecurity is put at risk if any foreign government or private entities are allowed to use .gov or .mil domains," Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., told the Washington Examiner. "It just opens a Pandora's box that we might never be able to close again."

So Kelly has proposed legislation that would require the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is the Commerce Department agency that has indirect power over the Internet, to delay the long-awaited transition to international control until after the federal government certified that no entity outside the federal government will be able to use the .gov or .mil websites.

The Securing America's Internet Domains Act of 2016 would require the NTIA and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to enter into a permanent contract to "formalize" what he called a long-standing "gentleman's agreement" between the U.S. government and ICANN, a nonprofit organization that has long maintained direct oversight of the Internet. Without such a contract in place, the bill would bar the transition.

Kelly worries the informal agreement could lapse, which he suggested would turn the Internet into a "party line" phone system, in an allusion to the old telephone systems that allowed multiple households to use the same line.

It's one of multiple GOP proposals that could delay the transition, which proponents of the new style of Internet governance fear could inspire China and Russia to attempt to take control of the Internet in their countries.

Kelly is unmoved by such fears. "I think it would be hard to sit back and look at China and Russia and think that they're acting in the best interest of the United States," he said.

NOTE: On May 25, 2016, Rep. Kelly introduced the Securing America's Internet Domains (SAID) Act of 2016 (H.R. 5329), which requires the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to certify that the U.S. government has secured sole ownership of the .gov and .mil top-level domains before it can transfer the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions to the global multistakeholder community. Specifically, this certification requires that the U.S. government has entered into a contract with ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) that provides that the U.S. has full, exclusive control and use of such domains in perpetuity.

On May 12, 2015, Rep. Kelly introduced the Defending Internet Freedom Act of 2015 (H.R. 2251), which would prohibit NTIA from relinquishing the critical functions of the Internet to any other entity without enhanced congressional oversight and until every freedom-protecting accountability requirement defined in the bill is completely satisfied.

On June 11, 2014, Rep. Kelly authored a guest opinion piece for Red Alert Politics describing the stakes of surrendering American stewardship of the Internet to a multinational body or any other entity.

 

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