WASHINGTON — The U.S. will no longer have sole oversight of the Internet as of October 1 if the House approves the Continuing Resolution passed on Wednesday and according to reports, the House is likely to approve the CR.
The Senate voted 72 to 26 to fund the federal government through December 9 without a provision in the CR to delay the transfer from U.S. control of the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, a private-sector, nonprofit organization based in Los Angeles, that assigns internet domain names and designations.
Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz fought for the provision’s inclusion with the support of fellow Texas Republican Sen. Jon Cornyn and South Dakota Republican Sen. Jon Thune.
“Unfortunately, leadership acquiesced to the Democrats’ demands to give in to president Obama’s foolhardy plan to hand authority of the internet to an international coalition of stake holders including Russia, China, and Iran. That was highly disappointing,” Cruz told reporters after the vote in the upper chamber.
“We’ve seen strong agreement from a number of my colleagues and in both houses of Congress, including Chairman Thune, Chairman Upton, Chairman Goodlatte that we should prevent this Internet giveaway and protect free speech on the Internet. This continuing resolution fails to do that,” he said.
The R Street Institute, however, applauded, the exclusion of the provision saying in a statement, “This is a vital step toward completing this 18-year commitment to transition the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority functions to an international multistakeholder model. By demonstrating trust in this model, the United States is discouraging foreign governments from pursuing multilateral models that allow for more state control.”
“As the U.S. House moves to discuss the important question of funding the government, we call on members to follow the Senate’s lead and not engage either in 11th hour brinkmanship or litigation to obstruct the transition,” the statement said.