April 14, 2014, Fairfax, VA — Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement urging passage of H.R. 4367, the “Internet Stewardship Act” offered by Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Penn.) that would require Congressional authorization for any federal turnover of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to any other entity:

“President Obama should not be giving the Internet away to anyone without a vote in Congress. Rep. Kelly’s legislation will reaffirm Congressional authority over any Internet transition taking place, guaranteeing that our elected representatives have a say in keeping the World Wide Web free and open from censorship. But, with the current Commerce Department contract with ICANN coming to an end in September 2015, the House will need to move decisively to enact it and then work with Senate colleagues to force a vote there, too.

“The Administration has yet to produce a legal analysis justifying turning over key Internet names and numbers authorities without Congressional authority to some as of yet unconstituted international body. It has also failed to show how current First Amendment protections of free speech afforded under the current regime of Internet stewardship will be safeguarded once the the Commerce Department’s arrangement with ICANN ends. The House should take immediate action to move the Internet Stewardship Act to the floor for passage.”

Attachments:

“FOIA requests Commerce Dept. legal authority to turn over Internet,” March 27, 2014 at http://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/DOC-NTIA-FOIA-re-ICANN-03-27-14.pdf

“Can Obama turn over the Internet without Congress?” By ALG senior editor Robert Romano, April 1, 2014 at http://netrightdaily.com/2014/04/can-obama-give-away-internet-without-congress/

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

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March 27, 2014, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government today filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) requesting the legal basis for its plans to transition control over the Internet to some as of yet unnamed international body.

The FOIA request includes “All records relating to legal and policy analysis developed by or provided to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) that support its decision to ‘transition key internet domain name functions,’ including any analysis showing whether the NTIA has the legal authority to perform the transition.”

On March 23, L. Gordon Crovitz reported in the Wall Street Journal that “a spokesman for the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration said the agency reviewed this legal issue and concluded the administration can act without Congress but refused to share a copy of the legal analysis [emphasis added].”

“The American people have a right to know why and on what legal basis, if any, the Commerce Department believes it has the power to transition control over key Internet domain name functions to an international body or to anyone else without a vote in Congress,” Americans for Limited Government president Nathan Mehrens stated.

Attachments:

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request to National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), March 27, 2014 at http://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/DOC-NTIA-FOIA-re-ICANN-03-27-14.pdf

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703)383-0880 or at media@algnews.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Nathan Mehrens.

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March 14, 2014, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement blasting the Obama Commerce Department for turning over control of the Internet to United Nations International Telecommunication Union*:

“Congress needs to prevent the Obama Administration from giving away U.S. control over the Internet to any international body.  To allow the free speech rights of U.S. citizens to be threatened by international bodies that don’t recognize these fundamental rights is dangerous and a threat to our national sovereignty.  Perhaps this latest egregious action by the Obama Administration in their quest to deconstruct the United States will finally wake Congress up to their power of the purse responsibility as a co-equal partner in government.”

* Editor’s Note: Initial reports by Politico indicated that the UN International Telecommunication Union could be taking over ICANN’s role in lieu of the U.S. A subsequent reading of Commerce’s proposal indicates that the agency’s intent is to “transition key Internet domain name functions to the global multistakeholder community” and “to convene global stakeholders to develop a proposal to transition the current role played by NTIA” and “ICANN will work collaboratively with the directly affected parties, including the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), the Internet Society (ISOC), the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), top level domain name operators, VeriSign, and other interested global stakeholders” and “international support continues to grow for the multistakeholder model of Internet governance”.

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703)383-0880 or at media@algnews.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Nathan Mehrens.

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