Jim DeMint: It's now or never to save the internet

Editor’s note: The following column originally appeared in The Daily Signal.

We have, unfortunately, come to expect our elected representatives to shirk hard decisions. So it came as little surprise when the Senate released the text of a continuing resolution late last week to fund the U.S. government that did not include key objectives sought by conservatives, such as stopping taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood.

Although there are many problems with this budget deal, only one is irreversible and permanent: allowing the Obama administration to cede oversight of the internet to foreign bodies. It’s troubling that the Senate has failed to include language prohibiting this transfer of power.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the nonprofit organization responsible for maintaining databases for internet domain names, essentially the phone book for the internet.

The Obama administration announced the goal of ending the U.S. contractual oversight of ICANN in 2014, and asked ICANN to submit a plan to fill the gap of U.S. withdrawal and to implement stronger accountability measures to make sure ICANN does not abuse its authority.

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