House Backs U.S. ICANN Stand

October 2005

The U.S. House Commerce Committee backed the White House Thursday and emphatically opposed turning over governance of the Internet to the United Nations (U.N.).

In a letter to administration officials, Rep. Joe Barton, chairman of the House Commerce Committee, and ranking member John Dingel wrote that the "United States should maintain its historic role in authorizing changes or modifications to the authoritative root zone file."

The letter comes just days before a United States delegation heads to Geneva for preparatory meetings prior to next month's U.N. World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisa.

Last month, the European Union (EU) proposed a new model of Internet governance that would remove the United States' control over the Internet naming system in favor of public and private organizations with an international multi-stakeholder forum.

Currently, Internet governance is handled through the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a California-based non-profit with oversight from the U.S. Deptartment of Commerce (DoC).