[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5737 Introduced in House (IH)]

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.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Defending Internet Freedom Act of 
2014''.

SEC. 2. REQUIREMENTS FOR NTIA RELINQUISHMENT OF DNS RESPONSIBILITIES.

    (a) In General.--Unless the Assistant Secretary submits the 
certification described in subsection (b) to the appropriate 
congressional committees at least 60 days before the date described in 
subsection (c)--
            (1) the Assistant Secretary may not relinquish the 
        responsibilities of the NTIA with respect to Internet domain 
        name functions, including responsibility with respect to the 
        authoritative root zone file, the IANA functions, or the 
        related root zone management functions;
            (2) if there exists on such date an option to extend the 
        IANA functions contract, the Assistant Secretary shall exercise 
        such option; and
            (3) if there does not exist on such date an option to 
        extend the IANA functions contract, the Assistant Secretary 
        shall seek to enter into a new contract for the performance of 
        the IANA functions that meets the requirements of subsection 
        (d).
    (b) Certification Described.--The certification described in this 
subsection is a written certification that the Assistant Secretary has 
received a proposal for relinquishing the responsibilities of the NTIA 
with respect to Internet domain name functions that ensures the 
following:
            (1) Control over the management of the Internet domain name 
        system will not be exercised by a governmental or 
        intergovernmental body.
            (2) The bylaws of ICANN will be amended to provide for the 
        following:
                    (A) No director or officer of ICANN will be 
                selected by or represent a governmental or 
                intergovernmental body.
                    (B) ICANN is prohibited from receiving advice from 
                the Governmental Advisory Committee unless such 
                Committee reaches consensus regarding such advice. For 
                purposes of the preceding sentence, the term 
                ``consensus'' means general agreement in the absence of 
                any formal objection.
                    (C) ICANN is committed to upholding freedom of 
                speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and 
                freedom of association, applying a standard that is at 
                least as protective of such freedoms as is the First 
                Amendment to the Constitution.
                    (D) The term ``supermajority'' is defined for 
                purposes of the bylaws of ICANN to mean, with respect 
                to a vote of the board of directors, an affirmative 
                vote by at least four-fifths of all directors.
                    (E) A change in the bylaws of ICANN will require a 
                vote of a supermajority of the board of directors.
                    (F) A change in the fees that ICANN charges for its 
                services will require a vote of a supermajority of the 
                board of directors.
                    (G) The directors, president, secretary, and chief 
                financial officer of ICANN will be subject to removal 
                in a vote of confidence by the board of directors at 
                least once every 3 years and will serve no longer than 
                9 years in a single position.
                    (H) ICANN will have a simplified, transparent 
                process for selecting its directors under which such 
                selections are linked with key stakeholders in the 
                Internet community.
                    (I) ICANN will have an independent process (such as 
                the process between ICANN and the International Centre 
                for Dispute Resolution for independent review of 
                contested actions of the board of directors of ICANN 
                and under which the Centre serves as a dispute 
                resolution service provider for objections to new 
                generic top-level domain expansions) for resolving 
                disputes between ICANN and external parties in all 
                matters related to the operations of ICANN.
            (3) ICANN has adopted, if necessary through amendment to 
        its bylaws, measures recommended by the multistakeholder 
        community to increase the transparency of ICANN deliberations 
        and decisions, such as providing public access on the Internet 
        to meetings of the board of directors and associated materials.
            (4) ICANN will adopt policies and procedures for disclosing 
        to the public records and other information that are at least 
        as protective of public access as the policies and procedures 
        required by section 552 of title 5, United States Code 
        (commonly known as the Freedom of Information Act). The 
        policies and procedures adopted will include a means by which 
        the denial of a request for access to records or other 
        information may be appealed through the independent dispute 
        resolution process described in paragraph (2)(I).
            (5) There will be established a private, nonprofit 
        corporation, to be known as the IANA Consortium, that is 
        financed and managed by the top-level domain registries and not 
        by ICANN.
            (6) The IANA Consortium, and not ICANN, will--
                    (A) manage the content of the root zones;
                    (B) select an entity to carry out the editing of 
                the root zone files that--
                            (i) is separate from the IANA Consortium; 
                        and
                            (ii) the IANA Consortium is satisfied 
                        demonstrates technical competence that is at 
                        least equal to that of VeriSign; and
                    (C) oversee the performance of such entity in the 
                editing of the root zone files.
            (7) There will be established within ICANN a body to be 
        known as the Internet Freedom Panel, which shall be composed of 
        representatives of the Internet community, including 
        registrars, technology groups, and civil society. No member of 
        the Panel will be selected by or represent a governmental or 
        intergovernmental body.
            (8) The bylaws of ICANN will provide that the Internet 
        Freedom Panel will have the power to review and to veto changes 
        to the domain name system proposed by ICANN that the Panel 
        considers to threaten freedom of expression, the openness, 
        stability, resiliency, or security of the Internet, 
        responsiveness to the user community, or other commitments 
        undertaken by ICANN in the Affirmation of Commitments in effect 
        between the NTIA and ICANN on the date of the enactment of this 
        Act. Any such veto will be final and will not be subject to 
        override by any director or officer of ICANN.
            (9) The entity selected by the IANA Consortium to carry out 
        the editing of the root zone files in accordance with paragraph 
        (6)(B) will implement a policy decision adopted by ICANN unless 
        the Internet Freedom Panel vetoes such decision.
            (10) ICANN will remain subject to United States law 
        (including State law) and to the jurisdiction of United States 
        courts (including State courts).
            (11) The United States Government will be granted ownership 
        of the .gov and .mil top-level domains, and the A and B root 
        servers that manage such top-level domains will be maintained 
        in the United States.
            (12) ICANN will conduct and publicly release the results of 
        an audit of its operations during its 5 fiscal years preceding 
        the fiscal year in which the proposal is submitted to the 
        Assistant Secretary and demonstrate that its financial and 
        management decisions during such 5 fiscal years have been sound 
        and comport with accepted business practices.
            (13) An annual audit of ICANN and the IANA Consortium will 
        be performed by an internationally recognized auditing firm 
        that will not have had a contract with ICANN during the 2-year 
        period preceding the audit. The costs of the audit will be paid 
        by ICANN and the IANA Consortium.
            (14) Neither ICANN nor the IANA Consortium will enter into 
        an agreement or modify an existing agreement to impose on a 
        registrar or registry with which ICANN or the IANA Consortium, 
        as the case may be, conducts business any condition (such as a 
        condition relating to the regulation of content) that is 
        unrelated to ICANN's core mission of coordinating the global 
        interoperability and uniqueness of domain names.
            (15) There will be established a joint office of inspector 
        general for ICANN and the IANA Consortium that will be jointly 
        funded by ICANN and the IANA Consortium. Such office shall be 
        headed by an Inspector General that is appointed by the board 
        of directors of ICANN for a non-renewable, fixed term. The 
        Inspector General will be granted full access to ICANN and the 
        IANA Consortium, which will include access to such matters as 
        the finances, documents, and activities of ICANN and the IANA 
        Consortium.
            (16) The reports of the Inspector General will be made 
        publicly available and will not be subject to approval or 
        editing by ICANN, the IANA Consortium, or the officers or 
        directors of ICANN or the IANA Consortium.
    (c) Date Described.--The date described in this subsection is the 
following:
            (1) During the base period of performance of the IANA 
        functions contract, the date on which the Assistant Secretary 
        must give ICANN preliminary written notice of the intent to 
        exercise the option to extend the contract through the first 
        option period.
            (2) During the first option period of the IANA functions 
        contract (if the contract is extended through such period), the 
        date on which the Assistant Secretary must give ICANN 
        preliminary written notice of the intent to exercise the option 
        to extend the contract through the second option period.
            (3) During the second option period of the IANA functions 
        contract (if the contract is extended through such period), the 
        date on which such period expires.
    (d) Requirements for New Contract for Performance of IANA 
Functions.--A contract for the performance of the IANA functions meets 
the requirements of this subsection if such contract--
            (1) is between the NTIA and ICANN or another private, 
        nonprofit entity; and
            (2) provides for each assurance listed in paragraphs (1) 
        through (16) of subsection (b), except that, in the case of a 
        contract with an entity other than ICANN--
                    (A) each assurance listed in such paragraphs with 
                respect to ICANN shall be considered to be an assurance 
                with respect to such entity; and
                    (B) such contract is required to provide for the 
                assurance listed in paragraph (12) of such subsection 
                only with respect to years during which such entity is 
                in existence.
    (e) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term 
        ``appropriate congressional committees'' means the Committee on 
        Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives and the 
        Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the 
        Senate.
            (2) Assistant secretary.--The term ``Assistant Secretary'' 
        means the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications 
        and Information.
            (3) Base period of performance.--The term ``base period of 
        performance'' means, with respect to the IANA functions 
        contract, the period beginning on October 1, 2012, and ending 
        on September 30, 2015.
            (4) First option period.--The term ``first option period'' 
        means, with respect to the IANA functions contract, the period 
        beginning on October 1, 2015, and ending on September 30, 2017.
            (5) IANA consortium.--The term ``IANA Consortium'' means 
        the private, nonprofit corporation established pursuant to 
        subsection (b)(5).
            (6) IANA functions.--The term ``IANA functions'' means the 
        Internet Assigned Numbers Authority functions.
            (7) IANA functions contract.--The term ``IANA functions 
        contract'' means the contract that is in effect on the date of 
        the enactment of this Act between the NTIA and ICANN under 
        which ICANN is required to perform the IANA functions.
            (8) ICANN.--The term ``ICANN'' means the Internet 
        Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
            (9) Internet freedom panel.--The term ``Internet Freedom 
        Panel'' means the body established pursuant to subsection 
        (b)(7).
            (10) NTIA.--The term ``NTIA'' means the National 
        Telecommunications and Information Administration.
            (11) Second option period.--The term ``second option 
        period'' means, with respect to the IANA functions contract, 
        the period beginning on October 1, 2017, and ending on 
        September 30, 2019.
            (12) State.--The term ``State'' means each of the several 
        States, the District of Columbia, each commonwealth, territory, 
        or possession of the United States, and each federally 
        recognized Indian tribe.
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