Donald Trump's national policy director says the presidential candidate is opposed to the Obama Administration plan to turn oversight of Internet domain names to a multistakeholder model.

"Donald J. Trump is committed to preserving Internet freedom for the American people and citizens all over the world," said Trump campaign national policy director Stephen Miller. "The U.S. should not turn control of the Internet over to the United Nations and the international community.

He gave a shout-out to the Republican effort led by Trump's former primary opponent, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), to block the hand-off

"The Republicans in Congress are admirably leading a fight to save the Internet this week, and need all the help the American people can give them to be successful," said Miller in a statement on the campaign Web site. "Hillary Clinton’s Democrats are refusing to protect the American people by not protecting the Internet.

The National Telecommunication & Information Administration's contract with ICANN to oversee the internet domain naming (IANA) authority is due to expire at the end of this month. Republicans are worried that Russia or China would fill a perceived void left by the U.S. exit.

ISPs, including cable operators, are generally OK with the hand-off so long as control remains multistakeholder.

"U.S. oversight has kept the Internet free and open without government censorship – a fundamental American value rooted in our Constitution’s Free Speech clause. Internet freedom is now at risk with the President’s intent to cede control to international interests, including countries like China and Russia, which have a long track record of trying to impose online censorship."

NTIA chief Larry Strickling has argued that delaying the privatization of IANA was what would be the gift to those regimes, saying that "failing to follow through on the transition or unilaterally extending the contract will only embolden authoritarian regimes to intensify their advocacy for government-led or intergovernmental management of the Internet via the United Nations."

Also weighing in has been Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, who said it is Cruz trying to engineer a U.S. takeover of ICANN.

Related: GAO says IANA Hand-off doesn't need Hill OK

Following a hearing last week on the Obama Administration's hand-off of Internet domain name oversight to a multistakeholder group, unhappy Republicans led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), urged Democrats to join them in delaying delay the transition and push for more answers to troubling questions.

"It is profoundly disappointing that the Obama administration has decided to press on with its plan to relinquish United States oversight of crucial Internet functions, even though Congress has not given its approval," said most of a dozen Republican senators in a statement aimed at their Democratic colleagues. "For years, there has been a bipartisan understanding that the ICANN transition is premature and that critical questions remain unanswered about the influence of authoritarian regimes in Internet governance, the protection of free speech, the effect on national security, and impacts on consumers, just to name a few.

“Without adequate answers to these questions, it would be irresponsible to allow the transition to occur in 15 days simply because of an artificial deadline set by the Obama administration," they said.

GAO: IANA Hand-Off Doesn't Need Hill OK

They cited former President Bill Clinton warning: ‘[A] lot of people who have been trying to take this authority away from the U.S. want to do it for the sole purpose of cracking down on Internet freedom and limiting it and having governments protect their backsides instead of empower[ing] their people.’"

Signing on to the statement in addition to Cruz were Chuck Grassley (Iowa), Roy Blunt (Mo.), Richard Burr (N.C.), Ron Johnson (Wis.), James Lankford (Okla.), Mike Lee (Utah), Jerry Moran (Kan.), Jeff Sessions (Ala.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.),

The National Telecommunication & Information Administration's contract with ICANN to oversee the internet domain naming (IANA) authority is due to expire at the end of this month. Republicans are worried that Russia or China would fill a perceived void left by the U.S. exit.

NTIA chief Larry Strickling, in testimony before the subcommittee, told the committee that delaying the privatization of IANA was what would be the gift to those regimes, saying that "failing to follow through on the transition or unilaterally extending the contract will only embolden authoritarian regimes to intensify their advocacy for government-led or intergovernmental management of the Internet via the United Nations."

Cruz was not persuaded.

NTIA signed off on a transition plan in June, saying the key elements had been met. They were:

• "Support and enhance the multistakeholder model;

• "Maintain the security, stability, and resiliency of the Internet DNS;

•  "Meet the needs and expectations of the global customers and partners of the IANA services; and

•  "Maintain the openness of the Internet."

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) says blocking the U.S. handoff of oversight of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which deals with domain names, to a multistakeholder model is "shocking" and an attempt to "restrict the freedom of the Internet."

Fellow senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) has major issues with the transition, has backed a bill to block it absent congressional approval and is holding a hearing on the issue Wednesday (Sept. 14) in the Senate Judiciary Committee's Oversight Subcommittee--Cruz is chairman of the subcommittee.

In advance of the hearing, Schatz released a statement saying that Cruz's effort to "delay or stop" the transition -- the U.S. contract is set to expire at the end of this month --"flies in the face of the U.S. business and tech communities, our international partners and those who created the Internet, who all are united in supporting concluding this transition in order to preserve the Internet as we know it – an open and global platform for free speech, innovation and commerce."

Tech companies and ISPs generally support the transition so long as that does not mean ceding control to countries like China or Russia, which the Obama Administration says isn't going to happen.

While Cruz has suggested Congress has to sign off on the transition, the Government Accountability Office said this week that that was not the case.

National Telecommunications and Information Administration chief Larry Strickling has a message for Sen. Ted Cruz: "Do not give a gift to Russia and other authoritarian nations by blocking this transition."

That was is according to his prepared testimony for a hearing Wednesday (Sept. 14) in the Senate Judiciary Oversight Subcommittee--Cruz is chairman.

NTIA's contract expires at the end of this month as the Obama Administration transitions oversight of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which deals with domain names, from the U.S. to a multistakeholder model.

Cruz has been trying to delay the transition and argues Congress needs to sign off first, arguing that the hand-off could mean handing power over the Internet to countries like Russia and China.

Strickling says it is "extreme and wrong" to claim the transition would be a giveaway to China or Russia, saying the contract is too limited to be a tool for protecting Internet freedom, while "failing to follow through on the transition or unilaterally extending the contract will only embolden authoritarian regimes to intensify their advocacy for government-led or intergovernmental management of the Internet via the United Nations."

"No one has set forth even a plausible scenario as to how that could happen, and the fact is it simply will not happen as a result of completing the transition," he plans to tell Cruz and the subcommittee. He says the suggestion that the handoff is a giveaway is one of the "misperceptions and outright misrepresentations" being circulated by its opponents.

Strickling's bottom line message: "The best and most effective way to preserve Internet freedom is to depend on the community of stakeholders who own and operate, transact business and exchange information over the myriad of networks that comprise the Internet."

He said the handoff plan meets the four key must-haves and that it wil

• "support and enhance the multistakeholder model of Internet governance;

• "maintain the security, stability, and resiliency of the Internet DNS;

• "meet the needs and expectations of the global customers and partners of the IANA services; and

• "maintain the openness of the Internet."

Tech and cable companies have been generally supportive of the hand-off so long as it delivers on those.

After reviewing the National Telecommunications & Information Administration's plan to transition stewardship of the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority), which oversees domain naming conventions, from the U.S. to a multistakeholder, the Internet Governance Coalition says it will be "good for America, good for American business, good for the Internet and good for the world."

That is according to the prepared testimony of David Gross, scheduled to appear on behalf of IGC at a Hill hearing March 17 on the hand-off.

IGC members include AT&T, Comcast NBCUniversal, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Disney Company, Time Warner Cable, Twenty-First Century Fox and Verizon.

Gross says the plan must adopted in tandem with "associated, new accountability processes" and that the U.S. should be an active stakeholder in the new multistakeholder governance regime.

The NTIA has said it hopes to have a decision by June on whether it approves of the plan.

The NTIA currently oversees IANA under a contract that was to have expired Sept. 30, 2015, but was extended a year -- with an option to extend it three more years -- because the plan was not yet ready. In 2014, NTIA concluded that no single nation, including the U.S., should be overseeing domain names for the Internet and set the transition in motion.

For its part, the coalition says: "Our independent conclusion is that the proposals approved by the ICANN Board meet the conditions set forth by NTIA, and that these proposals will be instrumental to ensuring the ongoing stability and reliability of the Internet as it continues to help the world’s people economically, socially and culturally."