> Maybe even a chairman of a House Committee (that you are welcome to consider
> more important than a couple of staff in the Executive Branch, but is far
> from being identifiable with the whole Congress) can set things off in the
> wrong direction, but the system may correct it ;>).
Under the US system of government, Congress, as a body, has enormous
powers.
On the other hand, under the US system of government, an agency of the
Executive branch has no powers whatsoever except those that are explicitly
poured into it by a law enacted by Congress and, except in relatively rare
situations, signed by the President, or which come from an Executive order
that itself can trace its authority back to a law enacted by Congress or a
Constitutional power of the President. (Treaty is another source of
authority, but nobody has argued that one exists that is relevant to all
of this.)
All of that adds up to the fact that the Department of Commerce or NTIA is
utterly without power unless it can point to a specific source of
authority.
And from what those administrative bodies have published so far, they are
on pretty shaky ground when it comes to handing over the keys to the
Internet to a body that will obtain, as a result, a government backed
monopoly and the de-facto power to impose a law of trademark on all
nations of the earth as well as a tax payable by all people on the planet
who register a domain name.
So, it is good that Congress is asking the fundamental question that the
executive branch has failed to answer for these many years - Where's the
authority?
--karl--
