Commerce plans to let domain name contract lapse in October

The Department of Commerce plans to end its contractual oversight of the internet domain name system in October “barring any significant impediment,” a top agency official said on Tuesday.

National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) chief Lawrence Strickling announced that it would let lapse the contract giving it oversight over the domain name functions. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) manages the system through the contract with the Department of Commerce, which is the parent agency of NTIA.

{mosads}“On Friday, ICANN informed NTIA that it has completed or will complete all the necessary tasks called for in the transition proposal by the end of the contract term,” Strickling said in a blog post.

“NTIA has thoroughly reviewed the report. We informed ICANN today that based on that review and barring any significant impediment, NTIA intends to allow the functions contract to expire as of October 1.”

The domain name system helps direct users easily around the web by connecting numerical addresses with the names — like Google.com — consumers associate with websites.

For years, the Obama administration has been moving forward with a plan to move from from an internet domain name system overseen by the United States to one under the purview of an international group of stakeholders. This has rankled Republicans who say it could put the internet in the hands of hostile actors.

A group of outside advocates recently argued in a letter to congressional leadership that the transition contravenes an appropriations rider that forbids the administration from spending money on the transition. But the NTIA said at the time that its actions — including reviewing the transition plan — weren’t breaking the law.