Live from the Senate Hearing

Senate Hearing
Senate Hearing


The Senate Commitee on Commerce , Science and Transportation is holding a hearing into the proposed transition of ICANN away from US control

Domain Pulp is fortunate to be able to report live from the hearing.


1017 Opening Statements
1020 Sen. Rubio arrives.
1050 Sen. Rubio leaves.
1059 Heritage Foundation arguing for a 2 year contract extension. Steve Delbiano arguing against.
1100 Concerns about the future of .GOV and .MIL .
1100 ICANN to be forced to sign contracts regarding these TLDs.
1100 Andrew Sullivan thinks deadlines can be met. Makes case for NTIA getting out of the way, and argues that the community should be supported.
1111 Edward Snowden mentioned by Delbianco.
1113 Question raised as to whether ICANN is representative of small businesses.
1115 Discussion about fragmentation.
1115 More questions about the future of .MIL and .GOV
1121 McKaskill questions whether 2 year delay would cause damage.
1122 Concerns over ICANN’s accountability.
1125 Accountability is being built into the by-laws
1126 “If it aint broke, don’t fix it”
1127 “Our decision is not going to affect the position of China and Russia one iota
1128 Sen. Rubio returns to the committee room
1129 Sen Johnson takes issue – warns of ‘the road ahead’
1131 Andrew Sullivan warns about the delays caused by NTIA approval. Cites .TR DDOS attacks.
1134 Sen Rubio doesn’t buy that the accelerated timescale is necessary. Says China will do what it wants to.
1135 Senator Rubio will be published call for provisional ‘test drive’ of the new arrangements later today, and will be inviting other Senators to sign up to it. This is very close to what was recommended by The Heritage Foundation.
1137 Rubio wants a fundamental bylaw keeping ICANN in California.
1138 Delbianco says that the proposed bylaws does that.
1140 Delbianco warns signal to Russia and China that any delay means US will never want to give it up.
1141 Rubio: not a question of never, but doing it the right way.
1142 Delbianco:  ICANN cannot do anything abouy Chinese censorship
1143 Johnson: How does transition advance the interests of the US?
1145 Delbianco: Nothing in transition affects China.
1147 Johnson: Won’t ITU, UN efforts to take over continue no matter what we do?
1148 Won’t this whet their appetite for more action?
1150 Sen. Rubio leaves.
1150: Markey: US has responsibility to lead by example. Important that we avoid sending the wrong signals to the international community. How do we secure an open and free internet at home and abroad?
1151: Sullivan: Internet works because it is voluntary.
1152: Markey: What message would it send if Congress called for a vote.
1152: Sullivan: it would send the wrong signals not to foreign governments but also to the network operators. Really worried, and it would be bad for business. A real risk. It would be bad for human rights – it would undermine trust, and there would be competing alternatives.
1155: Markey: If we fail to move forward with transitioning stewardship with in a reasonable time what is our risk we lose our change to preserve the multistakeholder model
1156: Beckerman: If we send the wrong signal there will be ramifications for multistakeholderism well beyond this.
1156: Kobeshar: Open letter supporting transition from 17 companies. Another from 7 civil society organizations. What aspects of the accountability proposals give confidences that accountability will remain.
1157: Gross: Proposals designed to ensure accountability. Feels very confident.
1159: Kobehsar: Stress tests based on the USG requiremetn?
1159: Delbianco: new mechanisms gave the ability to hold accountable far better than the current ICANN.
1200: Will experience of implementing new TLDs help ICANN?
1200: Confusion about ICANN’s role. IANA registry AND policy function. Transition enhances separation of function. Protects the technical function which makes for safer system for all.
1202 Markey: Great technical acheviement — selling Instagram for a billion dollars. How will transition benefit American businesses.
1203: Beckerman: Gives confidence Internet will continue as is.
1204: Delbianco:  Businesses can now challenge ICANN.
1204; Markey: What are Russia and China proposing.
1205: Gross: they would seek to enhance the role of the ITU as regulator. Said explicitly that the ITU should take this over.
1206: Markey: Why would this be worse?
1208: Gross: ITU is not multistakeholder. One size fits all, not allow diverse voices.
1208 Markey: ITU different model.
1207: Danger of how Iran or China could use captured ICANN to disrupt the WWW.
1208: Sullivan: They can’t. They can’t subvert the Internet’s design.
1208: Thune: What technical mechanism would they use.
1209: Sullivan: Root servers can’t prevent a single domain being  censored in the United States.













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