A coalition of technology groups and conservatives wants Congress to
sue to stop the Obama administration from handing over control of
Internet domain names to an international board, charging it could give
authoritarian regimes power over the web.
Since 1998, an arm of the U.S. Commerce Department
called the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA)
has handled domain names. However, in September, the Obama
administration plans to allow the U.S. government’s contract to lapse so
the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will be
run by a global board of directors with the domain-naming
responsibility. Many fear this will allow governments such as Russia,
China and Iran to have a stake in Internet governance and the “de facto”
power to tax domain names and stifle free speech.
Congress twice included riders in appropriations
bills to expressly prohibit tax dollars from being used for the
transition, which President Obama signed into law. So, if the Obama
administration allows the contract to lapse in September it could mark
yet another questionable executive action by the administration.
That’s part of the reason the tech groups and
conservatives are asking House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., and other
congressional leaders to support litigation, similar to that which the
House took against the Obama administration regarding unauthorized
spending on Obamacare in a 2014 lawsuit.
“Suing to enforce the appropriations rider and
extending it through FY2017 are amply justified by the extraordinary
importance of the constitutional principle at stake,” the
coalition letter says.
The letter also says that the Obama administration
has not ensured the United States will maintain ownership of domain
names .mil or .gov for military and government websites.
“Without robust safeguards, Internet governance could
fall under the sway of governments hostile to the freedoms protected by
the First Amendment,” the letter says. “Ominously, governments will
gain a formal voting role in ICANN for the first time when the new
bylaws are implemented.”
Speaker Ryan’s office referred questions on the
matter to the House Judiciary Committee, which did not immediately
respond to FoxNews.com for this story.
TechFreedom spearheaded the letter signed by 26
organizations, including Protect Internet Freedom, Center for Financial
Privacy and Human Rights and Americans for Tax Reform; and 11
individuals such as TechFreedom President Berin Szóka; National Bloggers
Club President Ali Akbar and Cliff May, president of the Foundation for
Defense of Democracies.
“Congress twice told the White House to pause the
transition, yet the Commerce Department is blatantly ignoring the law,”
Szóka said in a statement. “Congress cannot just let this slide. It must
defend the Constitution’s separation of powers, which gives the ‘power
of the purse’ to the House. That means making clear to the
administration that the House will sue if NTIA does not extend the
contract.”
However, the Obama administration contends it isn’t bound by the appropriation bills.
“The law prohibits NTIA from using appropriated funds
to ‘relinquish the responsibility during fiscal year 2016, with respect
to Internet domain name system functions,’” NTIA spokeswoman Juliana
Grunewald told FoxNews.com. “However, the law does not prohibit NTIA
from evaluating a transition proposal or engaging in other preparatory
activities related to the transition. In fact, Congress directed NTIA to
conduct a thorough review of any proposed transition plan we receive
and to provide Congress with quarterly updates on the transition, which
we have done.”
Gruenwald noted that a
number of organizations
have supported the transition, such as Freedom House, the Internet
Society, the Internet Association, Computer and Communications Industry
Association and the Internet Infrastructure Association.
The Obama administration
announced in 2014
it planned to let the contract between the Commerce Department and
ICANN expire at the end of fiscal year 2016, allowing the operating of
the Internet absent the U.S. government.
The coalition letter continues by warning that the
ICANN structure will have a tough time holding board members and staff
accountable.
“ICANN has already morphed from the technical
coordinating body set up in 1998 into something much more like a
government: It has the de facto power to tax domain names,” the letter
says. It adds, “There are good reasons to worry about what it may do
with this power absent the incentive for self-restraint created by its
contract with the U.S.”
Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah
and James Lankford of Oklahoma have sponsored the Protecting Internet
Freedom Act to prevent the transition.
In June, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Bob
Goodlatte, R-Va., the chairmen of the Judiciary Committees of their
respective chambers,
wrote to Assistant Commerce Secretary Larry Strickling, stating the transfer would be illegal.
“As we are sure you are aware, it is a violation of
federal law for an officer or employee of the United States government
‘to make or authorize an expenditure or obligation exceeding an amount
available in an appropriation or fund for the expenditure or
obligation,’” the letter says. “It is troubling that NTIA appears to
have taken these actions in violation of this prohibition.”
In a letter of response on Aug. 10,
Strickling told the lawmakers they had a “misunderstanding” of the transition.
“Free expression exists and flourishes online not
because of perceived U.S. government oversight over the [domain name
system], or because of any asserted special relationship that the United
States has with ICANN,” Strickling said in the letter. “It exists and
is protected when stakeholders work together to make decisions.”
