Leading the troop of Republican lawmakers, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is inching towards a September showdown with the White House over transfer of internet control, according to The Hill.
"To stop the giveaway of our Internet freedom, Congress should act by continuing and by strengthening the appropriations rider in the continuing resolution that we will be considering this month," said Cruz.
Cruz has already initiated a website warning about the dangers of the Obama administration's strategy, Politico reports.
This fight with the current government could be a repeat of the 2013 Obamacare fight, according to The Hill, which threatened to plunge the federal government into a financial crisis after passage of the resolution.
The Texas lawmaker warned it can be dangerous if the U.S. ignored the internet powers it enjoyed as countries like Russia, China and Iran would take over. GOP lawmakers don't want the Obama administration to surrender its authority to ICANN, the global nonprofit organization that manages the internet's domain name system.
According to The Hill, few Republicans, however, prefer to stay away from the showdown. House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, are not keen on pursuing the fight to retain internet power.
McConnell's focus is to avoid conflict and concentrate only on campaigning. "If we're able to reach an agreement on the [continuing resolution], we'll turn to that next week," McConnell said, reports The Hill.
Cruz has Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Sen. John Thune and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley on his side to power the fight for Internet control.
Sens. Thune and Grassley signed a petition to Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker Thursday as they raised their concerns over the plan to cede the Commerce Department's oversight over the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to other countries.
"The transition of the IANA functions to the global multi-stakeholder community is a serious groundbreaking and potentially unalterable action," they wrote, asking the officials to "reconsider the administration's current plans."
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte also signed the letter.
Cruz argues that before taking things forward, the administration must obtain permission from Congress.
"Congress has for several years now prohibited the administration from using any funds to 'relinquish control of the Internet' and yet in typical lawless fashion, the department of commerce has been racing to relinquish control by Sept. 30," Cruz said.
Cruz, who has been maintaining a low profile ever since he dropped out of the presidential race in May, did not endorse GOP nominee Donald Trump at the convention. There were jeers from the crowd after his speech.
The Texas lawmaker will hold a hearing as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Oversight and Agency Action Subcommittee to review the issue.
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