Date: 2012-08-01
Speaker: BONO MACK (republican)
Chamber: H

in May and passed the House Committee on Energy and Commerce with bipartisan support from more than 60 Members. including Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman UPTON. Ranking Member WAXMAN. and my colleague on the Communications and Technology Subcommittee. Ranking Member ESHOO. I. too. am pleased to be an original cosponsor of this important resolution. Nations from across the globe will meet in December for the World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai. There. the 193 member countries of the United Nations will consider whether to apply to the Internet a regulatory regime that the International Telecommunications Union created for oldfashioned telephone service. as well as whether to swallow the Internets nongovernmental organizations structure whole and make it part of the United Nations. Neither of these are acceptable outcomes. Now. among those that are supportive of such regulation is Russian President Vladimir Putin. who spoke positively about the idea of "establishing international control over the Internet." Some countries have even proposed regulations that would allow them to read citizens email in the name of security. H. Con. Res. 127 rejects these proposals by taking the radical position that if the most revolutionary advance in technology. commerce. and social discourse of the last century isnt broken. well. we shouldnt be trying to fix it. The Internet is the greatest vehicle for global progress and improvement since the printing press. and despite the current economic climate. the Internet continues to grow at an astonishing pace. Cisco estimates that by 2016 roughly 45 percent of the worlds population will be Internet users. there will be more than 18.9 billion network connections. and the average speed of mobile broadband will be four times faster than it is today. The ability of the Internet to grow at this staggering pace is due largely to the flexibility of the multistakeholder approach that governs the Internet today. Nongovernmental institutions now manage the Internets core functions. with input from private and public sector participants. This structure prevents governmental or nongovernmental actors from controlling the design of the network or the content that it carries. [- 1840 Without one entity in control. the Internet has become a driver of jobs and information. business expansion. investment and. indeed. innovation. Now. moving away from that multistakeholder model. Mr. Speaker. would harm these abilities and would prevent the Internet from spreading prosperity and freedom. In May. the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology invited a panel of witnesses. including Federal Communications Commissioner Robert McDowell. to discuss the effects an international regulatory regime would have on the Internet. All agreed that such a regime would not only endanger the Internet. but would endanger global development on a much larger scale. House Concurrent Resolution 127 expresses the commitment of Congress to do all that it can to keep the Internet free from an international regulatory regime. Im pleased to report that earlier today. Ambassador Kramer. the leader of the U.S. delegation to the WCIT. gave a speech outlining the position of the United States that seems to be embracing the very principles contained in this resolution. Now. my hope is that the administration stays on this very course. As the U.S. delegation continues to work in advance of the WCIT. House Concurrent Resolution 127 is an excellent bipartisan demonstration of our Nations commitment to preserve the multistakeholder governance model and to keep the Internet free from international regulation. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce strongly supports House Concurrent Resolution 127. and I urge the rest of my colleagues in the House to join us. I reserve the balance of my time.