Congress to Enter ICANN Fray By Declan McCullagh
2:00 a.m. March 14, 2002 PST
WASHINGTON -- Official Washington's post-Sept. 11 preoccupation with heightened security measures has finally extended to the underlying structure of the Internet.
The U.S. Congress is planning oversight hearings to investigate the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the troubled nonprofit organization tasked by the Clinton administration with overseeing domain names and Internet addresses.
One reason for the heightened scrutiny of ICANN is a controversial proposal that the group's president circulated in advance of this week's meeting in Accra, Ghana. The turmoil it created exposed how public support for ICANN -- never all that strong -- has waned since the organization's creation in 1998.
For U.S. politicos who have erected their political careers on promises of stability and security, the prospect of radical changes to a body that oversees the sensitive areas of addresses and domain names is something less than palatable.
"More fundamental questions also need to be addressed, such as whether ICANN is even the most appropriate organization to be tasked with such a critical mission, which is central to our national security," wrote Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Montana) in a letter asking for hearings.
Another reason for the hearings, which the House Commerce committee has promised and the Senate Commerce committee is weighing, are long-standing complaints about ICANN's lack of accountability. It has refused to let one of its own board members review its financial information, and many anti-tax Republicans remember ICANN's abortive plans to levy fees on anyone who owns a domain name.
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