Boucher Schedules ICANN Hearing
House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., will hold a June 4 hearing to examine the future of the U.S. government's relationship with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a nonprofit California-based entity that administers the Internet addressing system. Subcommittee staffers will be briefed on the topic a day earlier, sources told Tech Daily Dose on Thursday. A witness list has not yet been finalized. Boucher has previously expressed interest in holding an ICANN hearing, particularly since a joint project agreement that has allowed Commerce Department oversight of ICANN is slated to sunset on Sept. 30 amid accountability and transparency concerns.
Earlier this month, Sens. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Bill Nelson, D-Fla., wrote to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, urging him to be a prominent player in finding a permanent accountability mechanism as the Commerce-based National Telecommunications and Information Administration seeks public comment on ICANN. Separately, Snowe and Sen. David Vitter, R-La., pressed Assistant Secretary-Designate Larry Strickling to pay close attention to the issue. "Regardless of whether the JPA is terminated, modified or extended, it is my belief that NTIA will continue to be an active participant in ICANN," said Strickling, who awaits Senate confirmation. Read more recent coverage on this topic in CongressDaily here, here, and here (subscription required).
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