Later today, Senator Conrad Burns, who chairs the U.S. Senate subcommittee responsible for supervising ICANN, will be holding a hearing on a number of issues.

At the beginning of the year, a press release called “Burns Unveils NexGenTen Agenda For Communications Reform and Security in the 21st Century”, had reported:

“U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) announced his top priorities for his chairmanship of the Senate Communications Subcommittee during the 108th legislative session. The ten items, called the Burns NexGenTen Tech Agenda, aim to strengthen security and usher reform for 21st Century Communication.”

The Burns NexGenTen will tackle three centerpiece issues before the summer through legislation and committee hearings and will address in full the remaining priorities midway this year. Sen. Burns hopes to gain support for each item on the NexGenTen by the end of 2003.

The Centerpiece Agenda: SPAM, Spectrum Reform, E-911
Priority Items: Broadband expensing, ICANN Reform, Wireless Privacy, Online Privacy, Universal Service Reform, Digital Democracy, US Asia Network”

Today’s meeting is an “exploratory” hearing to discuss ICANN handling of matters such as:

- International affairs
- ICANN Reform
- Internet Security
- WHOIS and Privacy of Domain Owners
- Wait Listing Service Controversy

The witnesses at the hearing will be:

- Nancy Victory (National Telecommunications and Information Administration)
- Paul Twomey (President and CEO of ICANN)
- Ari Balough (Senior Vice President of VeriSign, Inc.)
- Alan Davidson (Associate Director of Center for Democracy and Technology)
- Paul Stahura (CEO of eNom, Inc.)

We were also informed that the audio of the hearing will be available at http://www.capitolhearings.org/ (SEE SR253).