Political Quotes

“last week the Department of Commerce signed the sixth amendment to a memorandum of understanding between the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers, ICANN, and the Commerce Department. The first agreement was signed in 1998 to establish an organizational body to manage the technical coordination of the Internet Domain Name Addressing System. In the subsequent years the agreement has been amended to reflect the needs of the organization to accommodate the industry and constituency it was created to support. The Department of Commerce is hopeful this will be the last agreement they have to sign with ICANN. The hope is for ICANN to show they have become a responsible organization and there can be a transition of the Domain Name System, DNS, management to private sector control, out of the hands of the department permanently. Several items of interest have been brought to my attention during our oversight hearing on ICANN that I would like the Department of Commerce to consider before ICANN receives the freedom they want as an independent organization. They must first prove they are doing their job. I would encourage the Department of Commerce to establish dates of accomplishment to the milestones they have set out in their most recent memorandum of understanding with ICANN. Specific, quantifiable goals will help ascertain if ICANN has created a stable environment where innovation and competition can flow freely for the area surrounding the DNS.”