House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman joined Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., late Tuesday in calling for the creation of a permanent relationship between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which administers the world's Web addresses, and the Commerce Department. A memo formally joining the two entities is slated to expire late next month amid concerns on Capitol Hill and within industry that ICANN faces problems with transparency and accountability. ICANN leaders have claimed that after 10 years in business, the California nonprofit is ready for its independence.

A letter to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke from Boucher, Waxman and eight other Democratic lawmakers said a set of enduring principles "will place beyond doubt the value of the current model for managing" the domain name system and will prevent any one entity from controlling the underpinnings of the Internet. Their proposal would provide for periodic reviews of ICANN performance and create a mechanism for implementing ICANN's proposed broad expansion of top-level domains like .com and .biz. Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee are said to be preparing their own letter to Locke with recommendations for ICANN's path forward.

House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee members at a June hearing called for an extension of the U.S. government's formal oversight agreement with ICANN. At the time, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., said ICANN remains "far from a model of effective and sustainable self-governance" and it would be unwise to shrink the federal government's role amid increased cyber attacks and rapid Internet innovation. Subcommittee ranking member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., and Reps. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., John Shimkus, R-Ill., and Lee Terry, R-Neb., each backed extending the oversight agreement between ICANN and Commerce.

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