U.S. Rep. Nick J. Rahall (D-WV) celebrated a victory for Internet protection this week when negotiators at the the World Summit on the Information Society, consisting of more than 100 countries, agreed to leave the United States in charge of the Internet's addressing system.

Despite the rapid growth and enormous current success of the Internet, there have been recent calls by some countries, as well as the United Nations, to hand over governance of the Internet to an international organization.

"The value of the Internet, to the majority of Americans, is immeasurable," Rahall said. "We rely on the Internet to perform critical functions and in nearly every industry, from our military to the private sector, and consumers also use the Internet to engage in e-commerce. It is critical to both our homeland security and our economy that the Internet continues to thrive as it does today."

The decision came on the eve of a decisive House of Representatives vote in approval of H.Con.Res. 268, which calls for the Internet to continue to function under United States control, as it does today, rather than under control of the United Nations. The resolution passed the House Wednesday evening by unanimous vote.

The resolution, co-sponsored by Rahall, sends a strong message to the United Nations, which was scheduled to debate Internet governance at its World Summit on the Information Society beginning tomorrow.

"Today we told the rest of the world that we believe in the structure and governance of the Internet as it stands and that we will not go quietly into the night when the stability of this important mechanism for growth and advancement is threatened," Rahall said.

The resolution supports the Internet continuing to function under the current oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a not-for-profit corporation which manages the day-to-day operations of the Internet's domain name and addressing system, and that the United States maintain oversight of ICANN.

Since 1998, the United States has had an understanding with ICANN, which has performed its functions well under the Department of Commerce, and during this time approximately 260 Top Level Domains (TLD) have been created.

"ICANN has proven itself effective, even during this period of intense growth, and is fully capable of handling the day-to-day operations of the Internet's domain name and addressing system," Rahall said. "The United States should maintain oversight of ICANN so that ICANN can remain responsive to all Internet stakeholders worldwide and otherwise fulfill its core technical mission."