Senate Leadership Rebuffs Cruz's Shutdown Threat Over Internet Control

It appears that the Senate is poised to quash a government shutdown threat from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in spite of presidential candidate Donald Trump lending his support to his former primary opponent's cause.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Thursday filed a continuing resolution to fund the government without any language geared toward blocking the administration's IANA transition, which Cruz had attempted to include in the bill. The Democrats still have to sign on, but the measure is expected to pass the chamber on Monday.

The IANA stewardship transition, set to take effect on Sept. 30, is the U.S. government's final step in a years-long process to transfer management of the Internet's domain name system to the private sector. The U.S. National Telecommunications & Information Administration, part of the Department of Commerce, will relinquish its stewardship of IANA to the nonprofit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN.