[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 154 (Friday, November 18, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S13340]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          INTERNET GOVERNANCE

  Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I rise to say a few words about the 
resolution I submitted and which was approved by unanimous consent on 
the Senate floor this week, in support of the President's position on 
Internet governance at the U.N. Summit on the Information Society. I 
thank the cosponsors on this resolution: Senators Stevens, Inouye, 
Leahy, Smith, Sununu, Bill Nelson, Hutchison, Inhofe and Craig. And I 
also acknowledge Senator Coleman for all his good work on this issue.
  No one can really control the Internet. It is not supposed to be 
controlled. It is an architecture, literally and figuratively, of 
freedom--freedom of information, of speech, of interconnection, of 
religion. Because the Internet was developed and commercialized in the 
United States, it reflects those core American values, and boosts them 
all around the world. And the United States should be proud of the way 
it has handled the growth of the Internet--particularly in the way it 
has kept the private sector experts in charge, and government 
bureaucrats out.
  I have been particularly concerned the status of the Internet 
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, ICANN, the private, expert 
body that oversees and manages the Internet's Domam Name System. This 
is the ``plumbing'' that makes each Internet site unique and keeps the 
Internet a global unitary network. The United States created ICANN and 
its unique model of oversight, with the input of international 
stakeholders. And U.S. Government oversight of ICANN has been critical 
in making ICANN more responsive and more capable of carrying out its 
important technical mission. ICANN is not perfect. I have been critical 
of its shortcomings in the past, and will continue to do so in the 
future. But I strongly support its model of governance that leaves the 
private-sector experts in charge.
  The preliminary news from the U.N. conference seems to be good. Some 
of the worst ideas, such as creating a new U.N. bureaucracy instead of 
ICANN, or to direct ICANN, seem to have been avoided. But I will look 
closely at the final results and make sure that nothing has been agreed 
to that could damage the Internet. I hope to hold a hearing in the 
Commerce Committee early next year about this, and I look forward to 
hearing the testimony of the key stakeholders at that time.

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