IV 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 875 

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that domain name 

registration information, referred to as ‘‘WHOIS’’ information, is critical 

to the protection of the United States national and economic security, 

intellectual property rights enforcement, cybersecurity, as well as the 

health, safety, and privacy of its citizens, and should remain readily 

accessible. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 27, 2020 

Mr. LATTA submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 

Committee on Energy and Commerce 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that 

domain name registration information, referred to as 

‘‘WHOIS’’ information, is critical to the protection of 

the United States national and economic security, intellectual property rights enforcement, cybersecurity, as well 

as the health, safety, and privacy of its citizens, and 

should remain readily accessible. 

Whereas WHOIS information is the information regarding 

who is behind a domain name registration; 

Whereas WHOIS information has been widely available since 

before the dawn of the commercial internet; 

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•HRES 875 IH 

Whereas law enforcement, public interest groups, and the private sector use WHOIS information to help identify those 

individuals behind websites engaged in illegal and malicious activity; 

Whereas law enforcement, public interest groups, and the private sector use WHOIS information to make connections 

among websites that have similar or identical registration 

information to help identify patterns of illicit activity and 

prevent additional harm; 

Whereas law enforcement, public interest groups, and the private sector use WHOIS information to aid consumer protection on the internet, protect privacy, combat illegal online drug sales, enforce intellectual property laws, identify 

and stop human, sex, and animal trafficking, as well as 

in the defense of homeland and national security; 

Whereas the multistakeholder community continues to work 

diligently to create a service that both provides access to 

domain registrant information for legitimate, lawful 

needs and complies with privacy laws; 

Whereas the National Telecommunications and Information 

Administration (NTIA) requires that registries and registrars managing the United States top-level domain 

‘‘maintain publicly accessible accurate WHOIS’’; and 

Whereas the NTIA identified WHOIS information as a ‘‘critical tool’’ in its April 2019 letter to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and encouraged the swift creation of a system that allows for 

continued access to WHOIS data for parties with legitimate interests, like law enforcement, public interest 

groups, intellectual property rights holders, and cybersecurity researchers: Now, therefore, be it 

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•HRES 875 IH 

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep2 resentatives that the domain name registration informa3 tion, referred to as ‘‘WHOIS’’ information, is critical to 

4 the protection of the United States national and economic 

5 security, intellectual property rights enforcement, cyberse6 curity, as well as the health, safety, and privacy of its citi7 zens, and should remain open and accessible. 

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