May 15, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement responding to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) CEO Fadi Chehade’s proclamation that the transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will be complete by the end of 2015:

“The arrogance of Fadi Chehade is enormous even by Washington, D.C. standards. While Congress has defunded all NTI A actions to transition the IANA functions to ICANN or anybody else, Chehade thinks he is the king of the Internet by seducing countries around the world to support his coup. Chehade needs to understand one simple thing: The IANA functions are the property of the U.S. government. Says it right in the contract. He is a contractor. Nothing more, nothing less. Whose organization happens to make $300 million a year in revenue by virtue of that contract.

“While this contract ought to be renewed temporarily, our government including Congress should also reengage an open bidding process for the long term for other candidates who will not actively work against U.S. interests. Global Internet governance ends First Amendment protections and erases the firewall against censorship. One need only look to the Sony case of how a private entity will be pushed around by foreign dictatorships to understand the risks of giving away these critical functions.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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March 26, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today urged the U.S. Senate to hold up or down votes on amending the budget resolution to include S.Amdt. 751 and S.Amdt. 856 offered by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah):

“The Internet is the great democratizer of speech around the world. The amendments offered by Senator Mike Lee are about protecting the free and open Internet from two separate but equally important threats: foreign domination and excessive government regulation.

“The first amendment will guarantee that any proposal to transition Internet governance over the domain name system from Commerce Department oversight will require Congressional assent, giving proper oversight to any administration proposal. This will protect the domain name system from any potential foreign capture and protect the free and open Internet — everywhere.

“The second will roll back the Federal Communications Commission’s alarming change to the Communications Act, applying Title II to Internet broadband, and assure that only Congress has the power to make such a change to law. Whatever the merits of so-called net neutrality, it is not up to the executive branch to regulate the Internet at will, which is what happened here. It’s an awful precedent, and it is up to Congress to assert its legislative prerogatives here.

“The Internet may be free but that freedom is also quite fragile, and it would be naïve for this Congress to ignore these obvious threats to it. Votes should be allowed on Senator Lee’s amendments.”

Attachments:

S.Amdt. 751, To establish a spending-neutral reserve fund to support legislation maintaining United States oversight over functions of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and preventing the United States from transferring such Internet responsibilities, at http://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Lee-856-Net-Neutrality.pdf

S.Amdt. 856, To establish a spending-neutral reserve fund to support legislation preventing the Federal Communications Commission from reclassifying broadband providers as common carriers under title II of the Communications Act of 1934 and from implementing other ‘‘net neutrality’’ provisions, at http://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Lee-856-Net-Neutrality.pdf

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick manning.

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Legal authority to perform Internet Assigned Numbers Authority functions transition to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and the global multistakeholder community questioned

Feb. 25, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) for the questions they asked National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) head Lawrence Strickling at today’s Internet governance hearing at the Senate Commerce Committee:

“Americans for Limited Government strongly praises Senator Nelson and Senator Sullivan for asking the tough questions of NTIA and asserting Congressional prerogatives over any transfer of Internet governance to the international community. These are the questions that need to be asked of an administration that is hell-bent on averting Congressional votes granting legal authority for the Internet transfer, and so Congress should continue to deny that authority. No less than the First Amendment protections for the Internet afforded by a government contract are at stake.

“In fact, we are astonished that almost one year after NTIA announced the Internet governance transfer, the agency still refuses to provide the agency’s actual legal authority document to perform the transfer. It is amazing Mr. Strickling was unable to assure Senator Sullivan that he could produce the legal opinion, despite previous numerous Congressional requests, media inquiries from the Wall Street Journal, and even an almost one-year old Freedom of Information Act request from Americans for Limited Government. It is becoming increasingly concerning that the agency may have proceeded with the Internet transfer without ever having received even an internal legal opinion of the authority to perform the transfer.”

Attachments:

Senator Dan Sullivan questioning NTIA head Lawrence Strickling, Feb. 25, 2015 at http://www.senate.gov/isvp/?type=LIVE&comm=commerce&filename=commerce022515&stt=01:26:25

Sullivan: “There’s been a lot of articles in the paper very concerned about this, as I certainly am, but one of those has actually raised a very important issue that I’d also like you to address is your legal authority to do this. Again, another issue with this administration I have a problem with is taking action where you have no legal authority. Under the Constitution, the Congress has the power to transfer federal government property. [IANA functions] is federal government property, it is valuable property, and I don’t think you’ve been authorized by Congress to take this action yet.”

Strickling: “There is no government property that is the subject of this contract. All the contract does is designate ICANN to perform the IANA functions. They were given no assets of the United States with which to perform these functions. The domain name file is—“

Sullivan: “Is there a Commerce Department legal opinion on this issue?”

Strickling: “Yes there is, sir.”

Sullivan: “Can we see that?”

Strickling: “I’ll take that back, I’m not in a position to say yes or no but I will [take your request back].”

Senator Bill Nelson questioning NTIA head Lawrence Strickling, Feb. 25, 2015 at http://www.senate.gov/isvp/?type=LIVE&comm=commerce&filename=commerce022515&stt=02:11:25

Nelson: “Last year, in the omnibus appropriations, a rider was placed that prevents NTIA from spending funds on the transition to IANA contract before September 30 of this year, 2015. Can you explain NTIA’s interpretation of that rider, Mr. Secretary?”

Strickling: “We have interpreted that resolution or interpreted that language to prevent us from allowing the transition to occure before September 30… In consultations with members and staffs up here on the Hill, we sought to clarify whether that would in any way restrict our ability to monitor the transition planning process which is going on in the community, and is not subject to any restrictions in the legislation and in fact as you know the rider imposes reporting requirements on us. It was clear Congress intended us to continue to monitor the process and report back on what’s happening. And then within that we had also indicated that our need and I think the needs of serving American interests that we provide feedback where we thought it was appropriate, and we have engaged in that. Again, I’m very careful not to steer decision-making one way or antoher but I think through a series of questions that we’ve been asking and will continue to ask we are trying to make sure the process considers all the issues before reaching a final result. But we take very seriously the fact that no transition will take place before September 30.”

Nelson: “What happens if that rider is continued?”

Strickling: “Again, I wouldn’t want to speculate on that. I’m hopeful that the process within the community will result in a proposal that will demonstrate to Congress and the valid concerns people have up here about the process that in fact it’s being handled in a responsible fashion, that the transition will meet the conditions, and that there will be no need to extend that particular provision past September 30.”

Nelson: “Well, is the world going to stop revolving if it is extended?”

Strickling: “I don’t like to speculate on what will or won’t happen in the future, but I’m pretty confident the world won’t stop revolving, yes, sir.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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Feb. 18, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement condemning the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) response to Congress’ omnibus bill directive to submit a report due January 30 “regarding any recourse that would be available to the United States if the decision is made to transition to a new contract and any subsequent decisions made following such transfer of Internet governance are deleterious to the United States,” in which the agency stated it would only “revisit this question during the planning process and when evaluating the ultimate ICANN-submitted proposal to ensure that the final plan is not deleterious to the interests of the United States and its Internet stakeholders”:

“Rarely has Washington seen a more brazenly arrogant response from a bureaucrat to the U.S. Congress as in NTIA’s response to congressional prohibition of the Internet giveaway, including its failure to produce a congressionally-required agency contingency plan for administering the domain name system in case ICANN goes rogue. Based on the so-called ‘report,’ it is clear as day that NTIA intends to proceed with the Internet giveaway this year if the multistakeholder community is deemed prepared, despite a clear prohibition against doing so in the 2015 omnibus funding bill passed in December.

“This bureaucratic slap in the face to Congress and the power of the purse should be forcefully and unilaterally rejected by all members of Congress by forcing NTIA to renew the contract for at least a two-year period.

“Given numerous proposals by multistakeholders to reform the administration of ICANN — which will become a global monopoly for running the domain name system should the transition go through — Congress should engage in an aggressive investigation of NTIA’s oversight of ICANN and their actions to unilaterally turn over control of Internet governance to the organization without any clear authorization to do so.

“While Internet governance may seem archaic to some, no less than the constitutional protection of free speech rights afforded through the government contract for every single person who uses the Internet are at stake. Given the audacity of NTIA in failing to produce a contingency plan should Internet governance break down post-transition, Congress needs to shut down this process immediately.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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Feb. 13, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement responding to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) CEO Fadi Chehade’s recent comments that “Those who are genuinely committed to the quality of the proposal for the US government, are correct that we should not put deadlines. But those who for their own purposes try to delay the process, should make no mistake that we know that the most powerful tool to kill something is to delay it”:

“Mr. Chehade is correct. The surest way to stop something from happening is to first delay it. And that is exactly what Congress should do, by insisting that the Commerce Department renew the current Internet governance contract for at least two more years. ICANN obviously is very concerned about its so-called ‘window of opportunity,’ so Congress should deny it. What’s the rush?

“To those committed to the freedom that the First Amendment affords through government control over Internet governance, there should be no rush to sacrifice those protections so lightly, and without any Congressional involvement as provided for under the Constitution. The free and open Internet depends on there being a remedy in the event of censorship. Right now, there is Commerce Department control and oversight over the contract with ICANN, judicial remedy and, ultimately, the difficulty of passing legislation through Congress all serve as firewalls against foreign capture of these functions.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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Feb. 5, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement thanking Senate Republicans for including additional language in a resolution raising awareness of the Internet giveaway that states “Nothing in this resolution shall be construed as congressional approval of any proposal by ICANN to transition the stewardship of the functions of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority to the global multistakeholder community”:

“We thank Senators Hatch and Blunt for modifying their resolution to include language that makes it clear that Congress has not approved the Commerce Department relinquishment of its Internet stewardship functions property. Government oversight of those functions with its First Amendment umbrella has protected the free and open Internet for almost 17 years, and that is not property that should be relinquished lightly, and certainly not without a vote of Congress as the Constitution provides for.

“The fact is, there will never be protections offered by ICANN and the international community as broad as the First Amendment and federal court remedy that currently exists today. If the Commerce Department were to engage in censorship via its oversight of Internet governance, there would be a clear remedy in federal court. Without the government oversight, however, as was seen in the 2005 Ninth Circuit decision, Verisign v. McNeil, the non-profit ICANN cannot be sued on First Amendment grounds, since they are not a government entity.

“For that reason, we are comfortable with the current Internet governance contract with ICANN continuing indefinitely. The way to keep the Internet free and open is to keep it under the protection of the First Amendment.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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Feb. 5, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging Senate members to reject a resolution offered by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), that supports the Commerce Department relinquishing control over Internet governance to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) later this year:

“The Senate should reject any resolution that accepts the premise that the Internet should be given away to ICANN and global multistakeholders. Congress just voted for, and the President signed into law, a provision that prohibits the Commerce Department from relinquishing oversight of Internet governance this fiscal year. The Washington Post in a January 4 editorial agrees with our position that the U.S. government should keep control in order to protect Internet freedom.

“Yet, Hatch and Blunt, who voted in favor of the prohibition, now see fit to offer a resolution that supports the giveaway to foreign interests — sacrificing the First Amendment protections that U.S. government oversight affords for the free and open Internet. Hatch and Blunt would not even acknowledge the clear Congressional prohibition against the giveaway, and in doing so, are actively undermining the constitutional separation of powers, in supporting the transfer of government property without any clear Congressional authority to do so.

“The Hatch-Blunt resolution intends to raise public awareness of the Internet giveaway, and yet ignores the key controversy surrounding it, which is that the administration cannot perform the transfer without clear Congressional authority. The free and open Internet is too important to hand off to an unaccountable private foundation just to create a global monopoly on the domain name system and the assignment of IP addresses. We oppose this resolution in the strongest possible terms.”

Attachments:

“Protect the Internet: Keep the contract with ICANN,” Washington Post editorial, Jan. 4, 2015 at http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/protect-the-internet-keep-the-contract-with-icann/2015/01/04/b1ff61c2-7bff-11e4-9a27-6fdbc612bff8_story.html

“Congress Will Oversight ICANN: And You Can Take That to the Bank,” By Sophia Bekele, CircleID, Jan. 5, 2015 at http://www.circleid.com/posts/20150105_congress_will_oversight_icann_and_you_can_take_that_to_the_bank/

“AmericanExceptionalism.com,” By L. Gordon Crovitz, Wall Street Journal, Feb. 1, 2015, at http://www.wsj.com/articles/l-gordon-crovitz-americanexceptionalism-com-1422832103

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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Jan. 29, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement responding to comments by Department of Commerce Assistant Secretary Lawrence Strickling on January 27 to the State of the Net conference’s session, “Internet Functions in Transition: Is the US and the World Ready?” where he said, “we will not use appropriated funds to terminate the IANA functions contract with ICANN prior to the contract’s current expiration date of September 30, 2015” and “If the community needs more time, we have the ability to extend the IANA functions contract for up to four years”:

“We applaud Assistant Secretary Strickling for acknowledging Congress’ explicit prohibition in the omnibus on transferring Internet governance to ICANN this fiscal year. And we urge him to extend the contract by four years to allow sufficient time to allay any concerns over the potential transfer and not jeopardize the free and open Internet. It is clear that the transfer is not ready for primetime lacking both Congressional approval and certainty over the multistakeholder process.

“Extending the contract is not only the easiest thing to do, but given Congress’ clear prohibition on performing the transition prior the contract’s expiration, is the only thing to do.

“Americans for Limited Government urges the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which Strickling heads, not to attempt to find a cute way of getting around the Congressional prohibition. It is not, as Strickling said, ‘up to the community to determine a timeline that works best for stakeholders.’ The omnibus requires the agency to inform Congress by August 17 what its decision regarding the IANA functions contract will be. After Strickling’s statement, there had better not be a head-fake, for example, by simply allowing the contract to expire and transferring ownership of the IANA functions completely to ICANN without prior notice or Congress’ assent. That would be deceptive, unwise, and unconstitutional, since only Congress can transfer government property.”

Attachments:

“NTIA cannot perform Internet governance transfer without Congress,” By Americans for Limited Government senior editor Robert Romano, January 29, 2015 at http://netrightdaily.com/2015/01/john-thunes-education-free-open-internet/

IANA Functions Contract, October 1, 2012 at http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/sf_26_pg_1-2-final_award_and_sacs.pdf

I.70 1352.270-70 PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE (APR 2010)

(a) The base period of performance of this contract is from

October 1, 2012 through September 30, 2015. If an option is exercised, the period of performance shall be extended through the end of that option period.

(b) The option periods that may be exercised are as follows:

Period             Start Date                    End Date
Option I           October 1, 2015          September 30, 2017
Option II          October 1, 2017          September 30, 2019

(c) The notice requirements for unilateral exercise of option periods are set out in FAR 52.217-9 (see Paragraph I.59 above).

I.59 52.217-9 OPTION TO EXTEND THE TERM OF THE CONTRACT (MAR 2000)

(a) The Government may extend the term of this contract by written notice to the Contractor within 15 calendar days before the expiration of the contract; provided that the Government gives the Contractor a preliminary written notice of its intent to extend at least 30 calendar days before the contract expires. The preliminary notice does not commit the Government to an extension.

(b) If the Government exercises this option, the extended contract shall be considered to include this option clause.

(c) The total duration of this contract, including the exercise of any options under this clause, shall not exceed seven years.

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.

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Dec. 9, 2014, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement urging House negotiators not to include in the omnibus bill section 1090E of an earlier version of the National Defense Authorization Act (the “DOTCOM Act”), which authorizes the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to give away the Internet to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) upon submission of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the transition:

“On May 22, the House authorized the Internet giveaway in an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act upon submission of a report by the GAO on the transition of Internet governance. Doing so provides the very Congressional authorization for the Internet giveaway that the President desperately needs in return for very little.

“Fortunately that version of the defense bill did not pass the Senate, so at the moment the President has no authority to perform the transition. But if the DOTCOM Act is included in the omnibus bill, that will change, and even if the GAO says that the transition is a bad idea, there will be nothing to stop the Department of Commerce from performing the giveaway anyway.

“Rather than giving the President the authority to give away the Internet, appropriators should include the Sean Duffy amendment that was included in the House-passed Commerce appropriations bill that defunds the giveaway altogether. There is simply no excuse for members to give away Internet governance in return for a GAO book report.”

Attachments:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d113:h.r.04435:

SEC. 1090E. NTIA RETENTION OF DNS RESPONSIBILITIES PENDING GAO REPORT.

(a) Retention of Responsibilities- Until the Comptroller General of the United States submits the report required by subsection (b), the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information may not relinquish or agree to any proposal relating to the relinquishment of the responsibility of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (in this section referred to as the `NTIA’) over Internet domain name system functions, including responsibility with respect to the authoritative root zone file, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority functions, and related root zone management functions.

(b) Report- Not later than 1 year after the date on which the NTIA receives a proposal relating to the relinquishment of the responsibility of the NTIA over Internet domain name system functions that was developed in a process convened by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers at the request of the NTIA, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to Congress a report on the role of the NTIA with respect to the Internet domain name system. Such report shall include—

(1) a discussion and analysis of–

(A) the advantages and disadvantages of relinquishment of the responsibility of the NTIA over Internet domain name system functions, including responsibility with respect to the authoritative root zone file, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority functions, and related root zone management functions;

(B) any principles or criteria that the NTIA sets for proposals for such relinquishment;

(C) each proposal received by the NTIA for such relinquishment;

(D) the processes used by the NTIA and any other Federal agencies for evaluating such proposals; and

(E) any national security concerns raised by such relinquishment; and

(2) a definition of the term `multistakeholder model’, as used by the NTIA with respect to Internet policymaking and governance, and definitions of any other terms necessary to understand the matters covered by the report.

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (202)744-4427 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Nathan Mehrens.

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“The bill trades a right for a promise that is guaranteed to be broken.”

Dec. 4, 2014, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement urging opposition to H.R. 5737 by Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), which authorizes the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to give away the Internet to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) upon “written certification that the Assistant Secretary has received a proposal for relinquishing the responsibilities of the NTIA with respect to Internet domain name functions that ensures… ICANN appl[ies] a standard that is at least as protective of such freedoms as is the First Amendment to the Constitution”:

“We shouldn’t even be having this conversation, when nobody has even made the case for the necessity of the Internet transition. Why is creating a global, unaccountable monopoly for Internet governance so important? It is not up to Congress to make that case for the President. It is up to Congress to stop him, because once the Internet is gone, we won’t get it back.

“To support this legislation under the guise of ‘prohibiting’ the Internet transition, when the bill authorizes the giveaway, is disingenuous. The so-called ‘Defending Internet Freedom Act of 2014’ provides the very Congressional authorization for the Internet giveaway that the President desperately needs in return for empty promises from unaccountable multinational stakeholders and a bogus ‘freedom’ certification by NTIA that cannot possibly be enforced.

“On its face, it is not possible for ICANN to apply a standard ‘at least as protective as the First Amendment,’ since once Internet governance is relinquished there will be zero recourse in federal court for any claims of censorship. There is no First Amendment cause of action that can be taken against a private institution. Yet, NTIA will have little trouble certifying it had received those assurances. Under the current arrangement as a U.S. government contractor, every user of the Internet already has full First Amendment protections should anything go awry. In essence, the bill trades a right for a promise that is guaranteed to be broken.

“In the future, there will be no requirement for ICANN to apply the highest level scrutiny for First Amendment claims against itself like a court would. Regardless of the bill, turning the Internet names and numbers functions over to ICANN effectively makes them the prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner over all speech on the information superhighway with no recourse.

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (202)744-4427 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Nathan Mehrens.

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