[CCWG-Accountability] FW: Breaking: U.S. Government Funding Bill Delays IANA Transition

Wed Dec 10 20:58:21 UTC 2014

I agree, too.

Neither this CCWG nor the CWG nor any community working on the IANA stewardship transition should loose momentum – just because of interventions from whatsoever side. I’m sure we can expect more of this in the near future. We should keep our targets to develop the best proposal we can under the timeline we’ve set ourselves.

Best regards

Wolf-Ulrich

From: Phil Corwin 
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2014 8:06 PM
To: Steve DelBianco 
Cc: Accountability Cross Community 
Subject: Re: [CCWG-Accountability] FW: Breaking: U.S. Government Funding Bill Delays IANA Transition

Agree on all points, Steve. 

Philip S. Corwin, Founding Principal 
Virtualaw LLC
1155 F Street, NW
Suite 1050
Washington, DC 20004
202-559-8597/Direct
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Twitter: @VLawDC

"Luck is the residue of design" -- Branch Rickey

Sent from my iPad

On Dec 10, 2014, at 1:49 PM, Steve DelBianco <sdelbianco at netchoice.org> wrote:

  A reporter just asked about this, and here’s the answer I gave (speaking personally):

    This policy rider is not an attempt to stop the transition, as far as I can tell.   It seems designed to prod NTIA to do a short extension of its current IANA contract, since it allows NTIA to resume using funds to plan the transition after September 2015.   

    I don’t think this should alarm global stakeholders or the ICANN working groups already planning the IANA transition.  We have lots of work to do and aren’t depending on NTIA funds to help us.   And given the aggressive timelines we saw on yesterday’s initial call for the Accountability project, we may need the extra time an IANA extension would allow.

  —
  Steve DelBianco
  Executive Director
  NetChoice
  http://www.NetChoice.org and http://blog.netchoice.org
  +1.202.420.7482

  On 12/10/14, 5:57 PM, "Phil Corwin" <psc at vlaw-dc.com> wrote:

  FYI—breaking news of relevance to the timeline for the work of this  CCWG ---

  http://www.circleid.com/posts/20141210_breaking_us_government_funding_bill_delays_iana_transition/

  http://www.internetcommerce.org/breaking-u-s-government-funding-bill-delays-iana-transition/

  Breaking: U.S. Government Funding Bill Delays IANA Transition

  On the evening of Tuesday, September 9th, Congressional leaders unveiled a 1,603 page, $1.01 trillion FY 2015 appropriations bill to fund the U.S. government through the end of September 2015. One provision of the omnibus bill would delay the IANA transition until after the September 30, 2015 expiration of the current contract between the NTIA and ICANN. 

  Language in the bill states:

  SEC. 540. (a) None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to relinquish the responsibility of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration during fiscal year 2015 with respect to Internet domain name system functions, including responsibility with respect to the authoritative root zone file and the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority functions.

  (b) Subsection (a) of this section shall expire on September 30, 2015.

  That language, a modified version of the “Duffy Amendment” that was contained in the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act, would allow NTIA to start spending funds on a transition after exercising its first option to extend the contract.

  In addition, the explanatory report language of the Commerce-Justice-State portion of the omnibus spending bill, in which the above language is contained, states the following:

  Internet governance.-The agreement reiterates House and Senate language regarding the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) matters and modifies Senate language by directing NTIA to inform appropriate Congressional committees not less than 45 days in advance of any such proposed successor contract or any other decision related to changing NTIA's role with respect to ICANN or IANA activities. In addition, NTIA shall submit a report to the Committees on Appropriations within 45 days of enactment of this Act 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.

  This language appears to require NTIA to inform Congress 45 days prior to extending the IANA contract or taking any other decision in regard to it; as well as to submit a report to Congress within 45 days after the spending bill’s enactment regarding whether the US would have any post-transition recourse if subsequent decisions were deleterious to the U.S.

  This final bill language has already been negotiated with and accepted by Senate Democratic and House Republican leaders and is likely to be enacted and sent to President Obama by the weekend. It is unlikely that the White House would veto the bill and risk a government shutdown over this IANA language (although other provisions could become sticking points between the Administration and Congress).

  Rumors were already circulating in Washington that NTIA was prepared to extend the current IANA contract by at least six months in recognition of the fact that it may be impossible for the ICANN community to design and stress test enhanced accountability measures by the end of the current contract term, much less have them in place by then. So the bill may have little effect on the actual timetable for the transition. It remains to be seen what reaction to its enactment comes from ICANN, the ICANN community, and other nations.

  Philip S. Corwin, Founding Principal

  Virtualaw LLC

  1155 F Street, NW

  Suite 1050

  Washington, DC 20004

  202-559-8597/Direct

  202-559-8750/Fax

  202-255-6172/cell

  Twitter: @VlawDC

  "Luck is the residue of design" -- Branch Rickey

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