mr. strickling:. i think they were senator klobuchar: continue on. mr. strickling: multistate support support has been bipartisan in congress. these resolutions basically passed without objection. servedeen important we as a beacon to the rest of the world of the importance that civil society, businesses, technical experts play in charting the course of the internet. particularly the technical aspects reflected in the discussion we are having today about the iana functions. there has been a long struggle between those authoritarian governments that are threatened by their citizens being more actively engaged in managing internet resources who have sought to bring internet governance under the authority of the united nations or the international telekinesis -- telecommunications union. senator klobuchar: what we have tried to do this set of a theess so that it is internet govern five multi-stakeholders instead of going over to the u.n.? mr. strickling: that has been the battle we have been fighting for more than 10 years. senator klobuchar: who wanted to g

mr. strickling: yes or. sen. coons: thank you both very much. mr. trickling, i agree on the importance of continued u.s. domain of the top names. in 2015, you testified that you would take a look and make sure that if there is a way we can strengthen the u.s. government's rights to those names, we will do it. and while it was affirmed that only be madede can with the express approval of the u.s. government, we have come to learn that the information has come not through a binding legal agreement, but by an exchange of letters, and it remains possible that icann could re-delegate these. why is the administration content to receive so little assurance, a mere letter, instead of a binding legal agreement from icann? has the ntia consulted with the justice department, a member of the dns interagency working group regarding this language? if so, what was their response? mr. strickling: the answer to your first question is the united states does not wish to cede sovereignty that we may have, and that is why we have done this as an exchange of letters. the

mr. strickling. mr. marby. >> mr. chairman, ranking members of the committee, thank you for inviting me here. i am honored to discuss this important issues and i welcome this opportunity to answer your questions. it marks the next step in the evolution of how the internet addressing system is coordinated. the transition was first envisioned in 1998 when icann was form and supported by democratic and republican administrations since. i'll leave you with one point today. no one controls the internet. you can think about it as a machine with many moving parts. with icann being just one part of that machine. and icann can be replaced in that machine. it has nothing to do with content or freedom of cretion. icann had nothing to do with protecting free speech on the internet. we do not and cannot impact how sovereign states censor within their borders. the internet with its moving technical parts is currently running smoothly. it's a voluntarily arrangement between actors operating on a basis of trust. icann's primary job i

mr. strickling.we'll hear your testimony first. >> chairman cruz, chairman grassley, ranking member coons and members of the subcommittee. thank you for the opportunity to come here today to testify for freedom. specifically internet freedom. i come here to testify for free speech in civil liberties. i come here to testify in favor of completing the transition of the u.s. government's stewardship of the domain name system to the global multistakeholder community because doing so offers the best hope of protecting internet freedom. protecting internet freedom and openness has been a key criterion for the transition from the day we announced it. the best and most effective way is to depend on the community of stakeholders who own and operate transact business and exchange information over the myriad of networks that comprise the internet. free extraction is protected by the open decentralized nature of the internet, the neutral manner in which the technical aspects are managed and the commitment of sta