I 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5737 

To prohibit the National Telecommunications and Information Administration 

from relinquishing responsibilities with respect to Internet domain name 

functions unless it certifies that it has received a proposal for such 

relinquishment that meets certain criteria, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

NOVEMBER 19, 2014 

Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania (for himself and Mr. MCCAUL) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To prohibit the National Telecommunications and Information Administration from relinquishing responsibilities 

with respect to Internet domain name functions unless 

it certifies that it has received a proposal for such relinquishment that meets certain criteria, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Defending Internet 

5 Freedom Act of 2014’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. REQUIREMENTS FOR NTIA RELINQUISHMENT OF 

2 DNS RESPONSIBILITIES. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Unless the Assistant Secretary 

4 submits the certification described in subsection (b) to the 

5 appropriate congressional committees at least 60 days be6 fore the date described in subsection (c)— 

7 (1) the Assistant Secretary may not relinquish 

8 the responsibilities of the NTIA with respect to 

9 Internet domain name functions, including responsi10 bility with respect to the authoritative root zone file, 

11 the IANA functions, or the related root zone man12 agement functions; 

13 (2) if there exists on such date an option to ex14 tend the IANA functions contract, the Assistant 

15 Secretary shall exercise such option; and 

16 (3) if there does not exist on such date an op17 tion to extend the IANA functions contract, the As18 sistant Secretary shall seek to enter into a new con19 tract for the performance of the IANA functions 

20 that meets the requirements of subsection (d). 

21 (b) CERTIFICATION DESCRIBED.—The certification 

22 described in this subsection is a written certification that 

23 the Assistant Secretary has received a proposal for relin24 quishing the responsibilities of the NTIA with respect to 

25 Internet domain name functions that ensures the fol26 lowing: 


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1 (1) Control over the management of the Inter2 net domain name system will not be exercised by a 

3 governmental or intergovernmental body. 

4 (2) The bylaws of ICANN will be amended to 

5 provide for the following: 

6 (A) No director or officer of ICANN will 

7 be selected by or represent a governmental or 

8 intergovernmental body. 

9 (B) ICANN is prohibited from receiving 

10 advice from the Governmental Advisory Com11 mittee unless such Committee reaches con12 sensus regarding such advice. For purposes of 

13 the preceding sentence, the term ‘‘consensus’’ 

14 means general agreement in the absence of any 

15 formal objection. 

16 (C) ICANN is committed to upholding 

17 freedom of speech, freedom of the press, free18 dom of assembly, and freedom of association, 

19 applying a standard that is at least as protec20 tive of such freedoms as is the First Amend21 ment to the Constitution. 

22 (D) The term ‘‘supermajority’’ is defined 

23 for purposes of the bylaws of ICANN to mean, 

24 with respect to a vote of the board of directors, 


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1 an affirmative vote by at least four-fifths of all 

2 directors. 

3 (E) A change in the bylaws of ICANN will 

4 require a vote of a supermajority of the board 

5 of directors. 

6 (F) A change in the fees that ICANN 

7 charges for its services will require a vote of a 

8 supermajority of the board of directors. 

9 (G) The directors, president, secretary, 

10 and chief financial officer of ICANN will be 

11 subject to removal in a vote of confidence by 

12 the board of directors at least once every 3 

13 years and will serve no longer than 9 years in 

14 a single position. 

15 (H) ICANN will have a simplified, trans16 parent process for selecting its directors under 

17 which such selections are linked with key stake18 holders in the Internet community. 

19 (I) ICANN will have an independent proc20 ess (such as the process between ICANN and 

21 the International Centre for Dispute Resolution 

22 for independent review of contested actions of 

23 the board of directors of ICANN and under 

24 which the Centre serves as a dispute resolution 

25 service provider for objections to new generic 


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1 top-level domain expansions) for resolving dis2 putes between ICANN and external parties in 

3 all matters related to the operations of ICANN. 

4 (3) ICANN has adopted, if necessary through 

5 amendment to its bylaws, measures recommended by 

6 the multistakeholder community to increase the 

7 transparency of ICANN deliberations and decisions, 

8 such as providing public access on the Internet to 

9 meetings of the board of directors and associated 

10 materials. 

11 (4) ICANN will adopt policies and procedures 

12 for disclosing to the public records and other infor13 mation that are at least as protective of public ac14 cess as the policies and procedures required by sec15 tion 552 of title 5, United States Code (commonly 

16 known as the Freedom of Information Act). The 

17 policies and procedures adopted will include a means 

18 by which the denial of a request for access to 

19 records or other information may be appealed 

20 through the independent dispute resolution process 

21 described in paragraph (2)(I). 

22 (5) There will be established a private, non23 profit corporation, to be known as the IANA Consor24 tium, that is financed and managed by the top-level 

25 domain registries and not by ICANN. 


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1 (6) The IANA Consortium, and not ICANN, 

2 will— 

3 (A) manage the content of the root zones; 

4 (B) select an entity to carry out the edit5 ing of the root zone files that— 

6 (i) is separate from the IANA Consor7 tium; and 

8 (ii) the IANA Consortium is satisfied 

9 demonstrates technical competence that is 

10 at least equal to that of VeriSign; and 

11 (C) oversee the performance of such entity 

12 in the editing of the root zone files. 

13 (7) There will be established within ICANN a 

14 body to be known as the Internet Freedom Panel, 

15 which shall be composed of representatives of the 

16 Internet community, including registrars, technology 

17 groups, and civil society. No member of the Panel 

18 will be selected by or represent a governmental or 

19 intergovernmental body. 

20 (8) The bylaws of ICANN will provide that the 

21 Internet Freedom Panel will have the power to re22 view and to veto changes to the domain name system 

23 proposed by ICANN that the Panel considers to 

24 threaten freedom of expression, the openness, sta25 bility, resiliency, or security of the Internet, responVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:09 Nov 20, 2014 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5737.IH H5737

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1 siveness to the user community, or other commit2 ments undertaken by ICANN in the Affirmation of 

3 Commitments in effect between the NTIA and 

4 ICANN on the date of the enactment of this Act. 

5 Any such veto will be final and will not be subject 

6 to override by any director or officer of ICANN. 

7 (9) The entity selected by the IANA Consor8 tium to carry out the editing of the root zone files 

9 in accordance with paragraph (6)(B) will implement 

10 a policy decision adopted by ICANN unless the 

11 Internet Freedom Panel vetoes such decision. 

12 (10) ICANN will remain subject to United 

13 States law (including State law) and to the jurisdic14 tion of United States courts (including State courts). 

15 (11) The United States Government will be 

16 granted ownership of the .gov and .mil top-level do17 mains, and the A and B root servers that manage 

18 such top-level domains will be maintained in the 

19 United States. 

20 (12) ICANN will conduct and publicly release 

21 the results of an audit of its operations during its 

22 5 fiscal years preceding the fiscal year in which the 

23 proposal is submitted to the Assistant Secretary and 

24 demonstrate that its financial and management deciVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:09 Nov 20, 2014 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5737.IH H5737

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1 sions during such 5 fiscal years have been sound and 

2 comport with accepted business practices. 

3 (13) An annual audit of ICANN and the IANA 

4 Consortium will be performed by an internationally 

5 recognized auditing firm that will not have had a 

6 contract with ICANN during the 2-year period pre7 ceding the audit. The costs of the audit will be paid 

8 by ICANN and the IANA Consortium. 

9 (14) Neither ICANN nor the IANA Consortium 

10 will enter into an agreement or modify an existing 

11 agreement to impose on a registrar or registry with 

12 which ICANN or the IANA Consortium, as the case 

13 may be, conducts business any condition (such as a 

14 condition relating to the regulation of content) that 

15 is unrelated to ICANN’s core mission of coordi16 nating the global interoperability and uniqueness of 

17 domain names. 

18 (15) There will be established a joint office of 

19 inspector general for ICANN and the IANA Consor20 tium that will be jointly funded by ICANN and the 

21 IANA Consortium. Such office shall be headed by an 

22 Inspector General that is appointed by the board of 

23 directors of ICANN for a non-renewable, fixed term. 

24 The Inspector General will be granted full access to 

25 ICANN and the IANA Consortium, which will inVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:09 Nov 20, 2014 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5737.IH H5737

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1 clude access to such matters as the finances, docu2 ments, and activities of ICANN and the IANA Con3 sortium. 

4 (16) The reports of the Inspector General will 

5 be made publicly available and will not be subject to 

6 approval or editing by ICANN, the IANA Consor7 tium, or the officers or directors of ICANN or the 

8 IANA Consortium. 

9 (c) DATE DESCRIBED.—The date described in this 

10 subsection is the following: 

11 (1) During the base period of performance of 

12 the IANA functions contract, the date on which the 

13 Assistant Secretary must give ICANN preliminary 

14 written notice of the intent to exercise the option to 

15 extend the contract through the first option period. 

16 (2) During the first option period of the IANA 

17 functions contract (if the contract is extended 

18 through such period), the date on which the Assist19 ant Secretary must give ICANN preliminary written 

20 notice of the intent to exercise the option to extend 

21 the contract through the second option period. 

22 (3) During the second option period of the 

23 IANA functions contract (if the contract is extended 

24 through such period), the date on which such period 

25 expires. 


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1 (d) REQUIREMENTS FOR NEW CONTRACT FOR PER2 FORMANCE OF IANA FUNCTIONS.—A contract for the 

3 performance of the IANA functions meets the require4 ments of this subsection if such contract— 

5 (1) is between the NTIA and ICANN or an6 other private, nonprofit entity; and 

7 (2) provides for each assurance listed in para8 graphs (1) through (16) of subsection (b), except 

9 that, in the case of a contract with an entity other 

10 than ICANN— 

11 (A) each assurance listed in such para12 graphs with respect to ICANN shall be consid13 ered to be an assurance with respect to such 

14 entity; and 

15 (B) such contract is required to provide for 

16 the assurance listed in paragraph (12) of such 

17 subsection only with respect to years during 

18 which such entity is in existence. 

19 (e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

20 (1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT21 TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com22 mittees’’ means the Committee on Energy and Com23 merce of the House of Representatives and the Com24 mittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of 

25 the Senate. 


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1 (2) ASSISTANT SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Assist2 ant Secretary’’ means the Assistant Secretary of 

3 Commerce for Communications and Information. 

4 (3) BASE PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE.—The 

5 term ‘‘base period of performance’’ means, with re6 spect to the IANA functions contract, the period be7 ginning on October 1, 2012, and ending on Sep8 tember 30, 2015. 

9 (4) FIRST OPTION PERIOD.—The term ‘‘first 

10 option period’’ means, with respect to the IANA 

11 functions contract, the period beginning on October 

12 1, 2015, and ending on September 30, 2017. 

13 (5) IANA CONSORTIUM.—The term ‘‘IANA 

14 Consortium’’ means the private, nonprofit corpora15 tion established pursuant to subsection (b)(5). 

16 (6) IANA FUNCTIONS.—The term ‘‘IANA func17 tions’’ means the Internet Assigned Numbers Au18 thority functions. 

19 (7) IANA FUNCTIONS CONTRACT.—The term 

20 ‘‘IANA functions contract’’ means the contract that 

21 is in effect on the date of the enactment of this Act 

22 between the NTIA and ICANN under which ICANN 

23 is required to perform the IANA functions. 


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1 (8) ICANN.—The term ‘‘ICANN’’ means the 

2 Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Num3 bers. 

4 (9) INTERNET FREEDOM PANEL.—The term 

5 ‘‘Internet Freedom Panel’’ means the body estab6 lished pursuant to subsection (b)(7). 

7 (10) NTIA.—The term ‘‘NTIA’’ means the Na8 tional Telecommunications and Information Admin9 istration. 

10 (11) SECOND OPTION PERIOD.—The term ‘‘sec11 ond option period’’ means, with respect to the IANA 

12 functions contract, the period beginning on October 

13 1, 2017, and ending on September 30, 2019. 

14 (12) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of 

15 the several States, the District of Columbia, each 

16 commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United 

17 States, and each federally recognized Indian tribe. 

Æ 


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