ICYMI: Article in The Washington Times Urges Congress to Stop Internet Handover Before September 30 Deadline

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Wednesday, Jenny Beth Martin, President and Co-Founder of Tea Party Patriots, penned an article for The Washington Times imploring congressional leadership to stop Obama from giving the Internet away to foreign corporations and countries.

“The Internet was conceived, built, developed, and grown to fruition long before Barack Obama became president,” Martin wrote. “It was done at the hands of U.S. scientists and engineers, working with funds taken from U.S. taxpayers. The Internet is U.S. property. President Obama has no authority to give it away without explicit authority granted him by the U.S. Congress. Sen. Cruz and Rep. Duffy understand that. Do leader McConnell and Speaker Ryan?” 

Read Martin’s article in its entirety here. Excerpts are available below:

The development and maintenance of the open Internet has been one of the greatest boons to the enhancement of free speech and free commerce since time began. But if the Obama Administration has its way, both will be threatened in the very near future - unless Congress acts by the end of this month to block the Obama Internet Give-Away. Will it?

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On Oct. 1, the Obama administration plans to end the U.S. Government contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN. Doing so would kick off a transition that could irreparably harm the open Internet, leading to censorship abroad that could, quite realistically, lead to censorship right here in the United States. Under this transition of Internet oversight, China, Russia and Iran, which have all demonstrated their contempt for Internet freedom by blocking websites and restricting Internet access to their own citizens, would be newly empowered to block specific websites from users all over the world, including in the United States.

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Enter Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who has introduced S. 3034, the Protecting Internet Freedom Act. Rep. Sean Duffy of Wisconsin has introduced a companion bill, H.R. 5418, in the House. The bills would simply prohibit the Commerce Department from moving forward on its plan unless it first wins congressional approval. 

…

The Internet was conceived, built, developed, and grown to fruition long before Barack Obama became president. It was done at the hands of U.S. scientists and engineers, working with funds taken from U.S. taxpayers. The Internet is U.S. property. President Obama has no authority to give it away without explicit authority granted him by the U.S. Congress. 

Sen. Cruz and Rep. Duffy understand that. Do leader McConnell and Speaker Ryan?

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