Sen. Thune slams Dems for protecting Internet transition

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) hammered Democrats on Thursday for refusing to allow a provision in the government funding bill to stop the Obama administration from ceding oversight of internet domain names to an international body.

Over the past week, Republican leadership and other high-profile lawmakers including Thune, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) had pushed to stop the transition from taking effect on Oct. 1.

{mosads}“Earlier this week, Senate Democrats seemed inclined to accept a provision allowing for a reasonable delay,” said Thune, who is a member of Senate Republican leadership. “It would appear that new concerns about politics, not policy, drove them to change their mind.”

Thune had previously expressed confidence that language delaying the transition would be in the continuing resolution to fund the government.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said that he wanted a “clean continuing resolution,” saying the bill was the product of “many hours of bipartisan work across the aisle.” 

Democrats have blasted the bill, however, arguing they are being jammed into accepting legislation that does not include funding for the water crisis in Flint, Mich.

Grassley, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) wrote a letter on Thursday to Attorney General Loretta Lynch raising questions about the transition.

“With so many outstanding questions remaining, especially in the areas in which DOJ would seem to have direct subject matter expertise, we believe it is important to understand what input and contributions the Attorney General and the DOJ made in blessing this transfer and in answering many of the specific questions that were raised by other agency participants during the process,” the letter read.