Republican Senators Seek Hearing On ICANN Hand-off

Led by Senate Commerce Committee members Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), nine Republican senators have asked the chairman and ranking member of the committee to hold a hearing on the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s planned transition of some Internet domain name (ICANN) functions to a multistakeholder model.

That came the same day that the House agreed to amend the DOTCOM Act to a must-pass defense bill. The Act would require a Government Accountability Office study before that hand-off.

It was primarily backed by Republicans, though 17 Democrats also voted to amend to the National Defense Authorization Act. In a letter to chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Communications Subcommittee chairman Mark Pryor (D-AS), Rubio and company shared House Republican (and some Democrat) concern over the transition, pointing to the "success of the existing bottom-up, multistakeholder approach to Internet governance."

Actually, Democrats opposed to the DOTCOM Act, say that the hand-off is in service of that goal, since it is transitioning from US oversight -- though they argue that has been primarily ceremonial -- to the multistakeholder model.