[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 116 (Wednesday, August 1, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H5599-H5602]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EXPRESSING SENSE OF CONGRESS ON GOVERNANCE OF THE INTERNET
Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the
concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 127) expressing the sense of
Congress regarding actions to preserve and advance the multistakeholder
governance model under which the Internet has thrived.
The Clerk read the title of the concurrent resolution.
The text of the concurrent resolution is as follows:
H. Con. Res. 127
Whereas given the importance of the Internet to the global
economy, it is essential that the Internet remain stable,
secure, and free from government control;
Whereas the world deserves the access to knowledge,
services, commerce, and communication, the accompanying
benefits to economic development, education, and health care,
and the informed discussion that is the bedrock of democratic
self-government that the Internet provides;
Whereas the structure of Internet governance has profound
implications for competition and trade, democratization, free
expression, and access to information;
Whereas countries have obligations to protect human rights,
which are advanced by online activity as well as offline
activity;
Whereas the ability to innovate, develop technical
capacity, grasp economic opportunities, and promote freedom
of expression online is best realized in cooperation with all
stakeholders;
Whereas proposals have been put forward for consideration
at the 2012 World Conference on International
Telecommunications that would fundamentally alter the
governance and operation of the Internet;
Whereas the proposals, in international bodies such as the
United Nations General Assembly, the United Nations
Commission on Science and Technology for Development, and the
International Telecommunication Union, would justify under
international law increased government control over the
Internet and would reject the current multistakeholder model
that has enabled the Internet to flourish and under which the
private sector, civil society, academia, and individual users
play an important role in charting its direction;
Whereas the proposals would diminish the freedom of
expression on the Internet in favor of government control
over content, contrary to international law;
Whereas the position of the United States Government has
been and is to advocate for the flow of information free from
government control; and
Whereas this and past Administrations have made a strong
commitment to the multistakeholder model of Internet
governance and the promotion of the global benefits of the
Internet: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that the
Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and
Information, in consultation with the Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State and United States Coordinator for
International Communications and Information Policy, should
continue working to implement the position of the United
States on Internet governance that clearly articulates the
consistent and unequivocal policy of the United States to
promote a global Internet free from government control and
preserve and advance the successful multistakeholder model
that governs the Internet today.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Oregon (Mr. Walden) and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Eshoo)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Oregon.
General Leave
Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and
insert extraneous materials into the Record on H. Con. Res. 127.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Oregon?
There was no objection.
Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Con. Res. 127, a
resolution that opposes international regulation of the Internet.
The resolution was introduced by Mrs. Bono Mack 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 old-fashioned telephone service,
as well as whether to swallow the Internet's nongovernmental
organization's 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 isn't broken, well, we shouldn't 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 world's 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 multi-stakeholder approach that
governs the Internet today. Nongovernmental institutions now manage the
Internet's 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.
{time} 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.
[[Page H5600]]
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.
I'm 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 Nation's 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.
Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I'm very pleased to join with all of my colleagues. This is an
unusual happening on the floor, and I hope there are lots of people
tuned in from C-SPAN listening and watching, because it is one of the
few times that we've come together in a true bipartisan, 100 percent
bipartisan way.
I want to pay tribute to the gentlewoman from California,
Representative Bono Mack, for her leadership on this. And I'm very,
very pleased to join her and all of the members of the Energy and
Commerce Committee on H. Con. Res. 127.
As I said, this is bipartisan and it's bicameral, and it demonstrates
the bipartisan commitment of the Congress to preserve the open
structure and multistakeholder approach that has guided the Internet
over the past two decades.
The distinguished chairman of our subcommittee said that he hopes the
administration will remain on this. The administration was there before
the Congress took action. There is no light between the administration,
the executive branch, the Senate or the House, and that's the way it
should be.
Through this open and transparent structure, Mr. Speaker, the
Internet has literally transformed into a platform supporting thousands
of innovative companies, applications, and services, not just in the
United States, but in communities around the world.
I'm very, very proud, because my congressional district is very much
a part of Silicon Valley, and many of these companies helped to launch
these innovations. In fact, since 1995--this is really stunning--
venture capital funds have invested approximately $250 billion--with a
B, dollars--in industries reliant on an open Internet, including $91.8
billion on software alone.
But later this year, the World Conference on International
Telecommunications--at the committee, we call it WCIT, that's a lot
easier--will take up proposals that represent a really fundamental
departure from the International Telecommunications Regulations adopted
in 1988. Nearly 25 years ago, this treaty provided a framework for how
telecommunications traffic is handled among countries, but much has
changed since that time.
In addition to proposing new regulations on broadband services,
several nations, including Russia, are set on asserting
intergovernmental control over the Internet, leading to a balkanized
Internet where censorship could become the new norm. While there's no
question that nations have to work together to address challenges to
the Internet's growth and stability, such as cybersecurity, online
privacy, and intellectual property protection, these issues can best be
addressed under the existing model.
It's absolutely essential that the United States defend the current
model of Internet governance at the upcoming Dubai conference this
December because the very fabric of the free and open Internet is at
stake.
So I urge all of my colleagues to support this bipartisan resolution
which reflects, as I said a few months ago, a viewpoint already shared
by the Obama administration, the Federal Communications Commission, and
the U.S. delegation to the WCIT, and unite in opposition to proposals
that threaten the innovation, openness, and transparency enjoyed by
Internet users around the world.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. WALDEN. I'm now honored to yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman
from California (Mrs. Bono Mack), the sponsor of this legislation, the
chairman of the Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee of the
Energy and Commerce Committee, and a very active and effective member
of the subcommittee I chair, the Communications and Technology
Subcommittee, who has put a lot of time into making sure the Internet
remains free and open. This is her resolution. We thank her for her
work.
Mrs. BONO MACK. Mr. Speaker, I thank my dear colleague for yielding
me the time.
Today, if you browse the Internet and enter the search words
``Russia, China, human rights violations,'' you'll get back nearly 300
million hits. Think about it. Five simple words, 300 million hits.
In the future, how many of these stories will you actually be able to
read if Russian President Vladimir Putin and China's Communist Party
are allowed to exert unprecedented control over Internet governance?
Here are two words you should Google: ``Good luck.''
As the United States prepares to take part in the World Conference on
International Telecommunications in Dubai, we need to provide the
delegation with a clear and unmistakable mandate: Keep the Internet
free of any and all government control.
At the WCIT discussions, a new treaty on Internet governance will be
debated. Most worrisome to me are efforts by some countries to provide
the U.N. with extraordinary new authority over the management of the
Internet.
That's bad enough. But unlike the U.N. Security Council, the U.S.
will not have veto power to prevent censorship or despotic actions
which could threaten freedom everywhere. To prevent this from
happening, I introduced House Concurrent Resolution 127.
I want to thank my cosponsors, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman
Upton, Ranking Member Waxman, Communications and Technology
Subcommittee Chairman Walden, and my good friend and the Ranking
Subcommittee Member Eshoo for their strong bipartisan support in this
effort. I also want to commend Senator Rubio for championing this
critically important cause in the Senate.
In many ways, this is a first-of-its-kind referendum on the future of
the Internet. For nearly a decade, the United Nations has been angling
quietly to become the epicenter of Internet governance. A vote for our
resolution is a vote to keep the Internet free from government control,
and to prevent Russia, China, India, and other nations from succeeding
in giving the U.N. unprecedented control over Web content and
infrastructure.
Last year, e-commerce topped $200 billion in the U.S. for the first
time and is up 15 percent so far this year. We also continue to lead
the world in online innovation, creating millions of jobs and
bolstering our economy at a time when we really need it.
These proposed treaty changes, which have been going on in secret,
could have a devastating impact worldwide on both freedom and economic
prosperity. If this power grab is successful, I'm concerned that the
next Arab Spring will instead become a Russian Winter where free speech
is chilled, not encouraged, and the Internet becomes a wasteland of
unfulfilled hopes, dreams, and opportunities.
We cannot let this happen. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' for
this resolution, and say ``no'' to online censorship by foreign
governments.
Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Doyle), a highly regarded member of
our committee.
Mr. DOYLE. Mr. Speaker, I want to add my support for this important
resolution to safeguard the Internet from government control.
[[Page H5601]]
I'd like to thank my friend and colleague, Mary Bono Mack, and my
other colleagues from the Energy and Commerce Committee for introducing
this measure, and I was delighted to become an original cosponsor.
{time} 1850
This bipartisan resolution sends a clear message to the United
Nations. It tells the International Telecommunication Union, which is
the U.N. arm handling telecommunications issues, not to adopt
regulations that would make it easier for governments to exercise
tracking, surveillance, or censorship online.
The Internet has developed into the revolutionary medium it is today
because decisions over the structure of the Internet have been made by
nongovernmental, expert organizations. These groups invite the
participation of a number of stakeholders from academia, the private
sector, public interests, and other experts, and they've done a good
job of avoiding a lot of the political interference.
At a time when some governments have actively been blocking users
from accessing certain Web sites online, I am glad to see my colleagues
unite against such repressive actions and in support of Internet
freedom. Opposition to Internet censorship has always been a very
bipartisan issue. I want to make that clear because sometimes this
issue gets confused with other policy issues like net neutrality. Some
of my colleagues have argued that net neutrality supporters somehow
favor Internet censorship. I believe that users should be able to surf
the Internet however they want to without being blocked from certain
Web sites or services, which is what net neutrality is all about as
well, so I think opposing censorship and favoring net neutrality go
hand in hand.
Mr. Speaker, I am glad to see this resolution move forward in a
bipartisan fashion. I urge my colleagues to support it.
Mr. WALDEN. I now yield 3 minutes to a member of the Judiciary
Committee who chairs the Intellectual Property, Competition, and the
Internet Subcommittee and who has been one of our terrific leaders on
the Republican side on the Internet with regard to keeping it free and
open, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte).
Mr. GOODLATTE. I would like to thank Chairman Walden for his great
work in this area and for his leadership on this issue.
I rise to strongly support House Concurrent Resolution 127.
Mr. Speaker, several hostile countries continue to pursue a U.N.
takeover of the Internet through an organization known as the
International Telecommunication Union, or ITU, which is an agency
within the United Nations. In fact, a push is being made to negotiate
international control of the Internet in Dubai this December. The U.N.
is the absolute last entity that should have anything to do with
managing the functioning of the Internet.
Currently, the private, nonprofit ICANN, which is the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, performs this function.
While ICANN is far from perfect, having this responsibility rest with a
private entity helps foster market principles and is the most efficient
way to administer the Internet's domain name system and root servers.
We must remain vigilant against efforts by foreign governments to
consolidate the control of the Internet into a U.N.-centered body,
which would lead to free speech and access restrictions and abuses.
House Concurrent Resolution 127 will show Congress' unity behind this
concept, and I strongly urge my colleagues to support this important
resolution.
Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, I would now like to yield 3 minutes to the
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey), who has been a recognized
intellectual leader on telecommunications and the Internet for a long
time in the Congress.
Mr. MARKEY. I thank the gentlelady for her great leadership.
I have served 36 years on the Telecommunications Subcommittee. No
Member of Congress has ever done this.
I know that this is an important moment. This is an important
resolution because the Internet today is indispensable to our economy,
intricately linked to innovation worldwide, and initiates the free flow
of ideas around the planet. It is the most successful communications
and commercial medium in the history of the world.
In testimony before the Telecommunications Subcommittee in May, Vint
Cerf, known to many as the ``Father of the Internet,'' explained:
To allow any rules that would sequester this innovation and
inhibit others would damage the future of the Internet
dramatically.
I could not agree more. That is why I strongly support this
bipartisan resolution with Ms. Eshoo, Mr. Waxman, Mr. Walden, and Ms.
Bono Mack. This is why we have to be out here together. It is why we
must send a bipartisan signal to the rest of the world that the United
States will defend an open Internet.
The World Wide Web is essential to our economy. Companies large and
small rely on the Web regardless of whether their commercial
aspirations are local or global. The Internet's worldwide scope has
also helped to foster community and cultural communications across the
planet. We have recently witnessed the power of social media in
toppling dictators and in promoting democracy across the globe.
What makes the Internet so special is the decentralized, open system
that currently governs it. It is chaotic; it is impossible to control;
and the multistakeholder process that is in place today ensures the
Internet's vibrancy will continue into the future.
Here, domestically, we have to ensure that the broadband barons don't
close down this cacophony of voices which are heard and stifle
innovation. But globally, yes, a number of countries, including China
and Russia, are now proposing measures that strike at the core of what
makes the Internet great. Their proposals could stifle innovation,
cripple job growth, muzzle democratic principles. These proposed
measures include bringing the Internet under intergovernmental control
and imposing fees for relaying Internet traffic or termination rates
for delivering Internet traffic to its end destination.
We have to resist and reject these regressive ideas. It would
undermine the essence of the Internet. It would take us back to the
days when, in the satellite world, it was the controlling governmental
officials in countries that actually decided what ideas could go into
that country and made people pay exorbitant rates in order to get
access to those ideas. The Internet--this packet switch system that was
invented in the United States--breaks down those barriers. We must
ensure that we keep Internet freedom. Thank you all for bringing this
great resolution out to the floor here this evening.
Mr. WALDEN. I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, I would now like to yield 3 minutes to my
distinguished colleague from California, Representative Zoe Lofgren,
who is respected in the House for her knowledge, not only of
technology, but of all the wraparound issues that are a part of it.
Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Thank you, Representative Eshoo, and
thank you to all who have brought this important bipartisan resolution
forward.
I remember, as the Internet was beginning to take off commercially,
that we had a discussion here in the government. Again, it was
bipartisan, and there was an understanding that the Commerce Department
was not going to be able to run the Internet. We did something that was
a risk, but it worked out pretty well. We created ICANN, which
basically allowed a multistakeholder, nongovernmental organization to
do the technology, to assign the names and numbers. They've not been
perfect but not half bad.
What is before us today is a threat to what has been, as my colleague
Mr. Markey has said, the greatest force in modern times for
communication, for growth, for low-barrier entry into innovation--the
Internet. Whether it is to tax it or to censor it for political or
cultural reasons, we are aware that there are those around the world
who wish to burn the Internet. We need to take a stand in this body and
with our administration to say ``no'' to that.
Whether the attempts to control the Internet from the top down come
from
[[Page H5602]]
an international body like the International Telecommunication Union or
from international trade agreements and treaties--and there have been
many threats to the Internet that have been included in our
international treaties or even sometimes from our own government--we
need to stand up and protect the Internet and the freedom that it
embodies.
We know that the multistakeholder approach is critical to the
continued robust growth of the Internet. We also know that the
transparent, multistakeholder model has made the Internet such a hugely
successful global platform for economic growth, human rights, and the
free flow of information.
{time} 1900
I'm proud to stand with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to
say that America is going to stand up for freedom, we're going to stand
up for technology, and we're not going to allow anyone, whatever their
intentions may be, to threaten the freedom of the Internet to succeed.
I appreciate Mrs. Bono Mack's efforts in this regard, along with Ms.
Eshoo's, and the entire committee. I'm proud to be a cosponsor of the
measure. I look forward to its resounding success in a vote tomorrow.
Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my
time.
Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from California has 8
minutes remaining.
Ms. ESHOO. I'll just make some closing comments because I don't have
anyone else who is here to speak to this.
Mr. Speaker, I think that everyone who has spoken has really spoken
beautifully about this issue, about what the Internet represents not
only to individuals, businesses, students, how it has changed how we
live, how we work, how we learn, and the jobs that it has produced,
what it has done for our national economy, but also what it has done
relative to exporting democracy. Of course, the United States is front
and center in this.
It's a very interesting thing to me to examine those countries that
are thinking another way and want to impose that thinking on the
Internet. There are far more closed societies where freedom of thought,
freedom of expression is not valued the way we do and other democracies
do. So we need to form partnerships with other countries around the
world to make sure that the democratizing effect that the Internet
actually holds will continue.
I'm proud to join again with my colleagues, with Mr. Walden, the
distinguished chairman of our subcommittee, and Representative Bono
Mack, who led the effort with this resolution. I'm proud that we're all
together. And I always want to thank our staff, both on the majority
and the minority side of the aisle, for the work that they do on the
committee. I thank you all, and I salute you. I look forward to a
unanimous vote of the United States House of Representatives in support
of a free and open Internet.
With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself as much time as I may
consume.
Tonight, the U.S. House of Representatives will send a clear and
distinct message not only to our negotiators but to the world that we
stand for liberty and we stand for freedom. When it comes to the
Internet, both of those are incredibly important.
The Internet has brought us economic prosperity not here alone but
all over the globe. The Internet has allowed for political discourse as
never imagined by the great scholars of Greece and Rome. It's brought
us intellectual capabilities. If you think about what you can do on the
Internet today to research something, to evaluate something, there are
an unlimited number of sources of data. It's improved our lives. It's
improved our lives through our political systems. It's allowed people
who thought they had no opportunity to effect change to have an
overwhelming effect by communicating together. This really is a vote
for liberty. It's a vote for freedom. It's a vote for free speech. It's
a vote for the things that our Founders believed in when they gave us
the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It's our version of that.
We know that there are forces out there in the world that are opposed
to all of those things, because they want command and control of their
people, and that's not right. We have an opportunity tonight to send a
clear and convincing message that we stand in America for freedom of
the Internet, for no government anywhere in the globe taking charge of
it and shutting it down and denying that great human spirit that we
believe in so much here in America.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join us in a unanimous show of
support. I thank my staff and the staff of Representative Eshoo and
Ranking Member Waxman for their good work on this, and especially to my
colleague from California, Mary Bono Mack, who raised this with us
early on and worked closely to write a piece of legislation, that, as
you can see in a sometimes otherwise controversial House, has brought
us all together. That's a real tribute to Congresswoman Bono Mack's
work.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I call on my colleagues to support this
resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Walden) that the House suspend the rules and
agree to the concurrent resolution, H. Con. Res. 127.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this question will be postponed.
____________________