Rep. Kelly Responds to Obama Administration’s Assessment of Internet Transition Plan

Lead sponsor of Securing America's Internet Domains Act

WASHINGTON — U.S. Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA) issued the following statement today in response to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) completion of its assessment of the proposal to transition stewardship of the critical functions of the Internet, known as the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions – currently stewarded by the United States – to “the global multistakeholder community.”

“Ensuring the sole, exclusive, and permanent American ownership of .gov/.mil is necessary to preserve our nation’s cybersecurity and must be fully resolved before any transition in our stewardship over Internet domain name functions can happen. By relying on a non-binding exchange of letters to keep existing policies in place, NTIA is putting its trust in ICANN’s mere promise not to take any action adverse to our nation’s interests, without a legally enforceable contract that gives our government the right to hold ICANN to its promises. As a small businessman, I can say that I may exchange letters with my wife, but I write contracts with my business partners. This is why I introduced the Securing America's Internet Domains Act, which requires NTIA to certify that it has secured .gov/.mil through a contract, and firmly oppose any Internet transition until this crucial matter is resolved.”

NOTE: On May 25, 2016, Rep. Kelly introduced the Securing America's Internet Domains Act (SAID) of 2016 (H.R. 5329), which requires NTIA to extend the IANA functions contract unless it certifies that the U.S. government has secured sole ownership of the .gov and .mil top-level domains. 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 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 op-ed 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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