[CCWG-ACCT] FW: FY16 Appropriations Act Extends IANA Transition Freeze without DOTCOM Act

[Paul Rosenzweig]

Thanks Holly.  Having worked on the Hill myself, I find myself in respectful disagreement with Rep. Boucher regarding subsection (b).  I have seen it before and it is typically a "belt and suspenders" provision.  It over-reads the provision to see it as implicit approval ....

By its terms the continuing resolution does not apply in FY 2017 for ANY  of its terms.  This merely reiterates the point.  Put another way, nothing in subsection (b) prevent the Appropriations committee from restating subsection (a) in next year's appropriations bill.  It may choose to do so, or it may not.  Subsection (b) of this year's bill is IMHO an irrelevancy -- it certainly can't prevent a continuation of the rider if it is included in the bill next year.

All of which is a long way of saying "we shall see."  

Paul Rosenzweig
paul.rosenzweig at redbranchconsulting.com 
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-----Original Message-----
From: Gregory, Holly [mailto:holly.gregory at sidley.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2015 2:45 PM
To: Accountability Cross Community <accountability-cross-community at icann.org>
Cc: Sidley ICANN CCWG <sidleyicannccwg at sidley.com>; ICANN at adlercolvin.com
Subject: [CCWG-ACCT] FW: FY16 Appropriations Act Extends IANA Transition Freeze without DOTCOM Act

I thought you might be interested in the attached from Sidley partner Rick Boucher who served in Congress for 28 years.

HOLLY J. GREGORY
Partner and Co-Chair
Global Corporate Governance & Executive Compensation Practice

Sidley Austin LLP
787 Seventh Avenue
New York, NY 10019
+1 212 839 5853
holly.gregory at sidley.com
www.sidley.com


Holly and colleagues,

I have pasted below the text from the agreement of the conferees resolving differences between the House and the Senate over the fiscal year 2016 budget.

The NTIA is prevented by this language from relinquishing IANA contract oversight during fiscal year 2016, which ends next September 30. It's noteworthy that the language does not restrict NTIA from taking steps to put the transition in place including all activities related to NTIA review of the transition plan. The language merely prevents NTIA from terminating its oversight and completing the transition prior to next September 30. As I understand the current schedule, the transition would not be completed until that point in time in any event.

It's also noteworthy that (b) has been added saying that the restriction shall not apply in fiscal year 2017. That's a nice statement of intention by the drafters of this provision that by the commencement of fiscal year 2017 in October of next year the transition will be complete.

I don't believe that the adoption of this language in any way reflects a stepping back by Congress from the bipartisan consensus which has now been formed in both the House and the Senate to support the IANA transition as long as the NTIA’s originally announced 4 principles for ICANN accountability are in place and are enforceable as part of the transition plan.

Please let me know if you have questions.

Rick

SEC. 539. (a) None of the funds made available by
21 this Act may be used to relinquish the responsibility of
22 the National Telecommunications and Information Ad ministration, during fiscal year 2016, with respect to
24 Internet domain name system functions, including respon-
1 sibility with respect to the authoritative root zone file and
2 the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority functions.
3 (b) Nothwithstanding any other law, subsection (a)
4 of this section shall not apply in fiscal year 2017.


RICK BOUCHER
Partner
Sidley Austin LLP
1501 K Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20005
+1 202 736 8290
rboucher at sidley.com
www.sidley.com
  SIDLEY AUSTIN LLP




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