6 U.S.C. § 665 — Duties and authorities relating to .gov internet domain

(a) Definition. “Agency” has the meaning in section 3502 of title 44. This section does not otherwise define the quoted term. (b) Availability. The Director must generally offer .gov domain registration and supporting services under (e): (1) to federal, State, local, or territorial government entities and other publicly controlled entities, including federally or State-recognized Tribal governments, that meet the registration requirements under (c); (2) without conditioning registration on sharing information except information required by (c); and (3) without conditioning it on joining another service offered by the Director or a federal entity. (c) Requirements. With OMB approval for agency requirements and consultation with OMB for non-agency requirements, the Director must publish requirements sufficient to: (1) reduce misleading or confusing .gov names; (2) bar commercial and political-campaign use; (3) ensure only authorized people register and maintain domains; and (4) limit sharing or use of information obtained through .gov administration to administering .gov, supporting services under (e), and the inventory requirements under (h). (d) Executive branch. (1) OMB must set processes and guidelines for agencies’ registration and acceptable use. (2) The Director must obtain OMB approval before registering an agency’s .gov name. (3) Each agency must ensure its .gov website or digital service follows the 21st Century IDEA Act and its implementation guidance. (e) Supporting services. (1) The Director may provide services to eligible entities specifically supporting registered domains’ security, privacy, reliability, accessibility, and speed. (2) This does not limit other authority to provide services or technical help, and does not create authority for services except those expressly supporting .gov operation and registrants’ needs. (f) Fees. (1) The Director may provide registration and supporting services with or without reimbursement, including variable pricing. (2) Total fees for new registrations and annual renewals may not exceed direct operating costs of improving, maintaining, and operating .gov and its services. (g) Consultation. The Director must consult OMB, the General Services Administrator, appropriate civilian agencies, and representatives of State, local, Tribal, and territorial governments on .gov strategy and (c) requirements, especially privacy, accessibility, transparency, and technology modernization. (h) Inventory. (1) Continuously, the Director must inventory all active .gov hostnames and services and give the data to registrants at no cost. (2) Data may come from public or nonpublic sources, including commercial datasets. The Director must give each federal and nonfederal registrant all unique hostnames and services found in its domain; give OMB data concerning federal executive-branch registrants for OMB’s section 3553 duties; publish discovered hostnames describing publicly accessible agency websites when consistent with federal information-system security, presuming disclosure; and may publish related compliance analyses and data on the same basis. The Director must also collect information on agencies’ and State, local, Tribal, and territorial governments’ use of non-.gov suffixes, and publish the agency information when consistent with system security, presuming disclosure. (3) National security. Inventory, collection, and publication must protect national-security information. The Director may not do so if, after appropriate coordination, it would disrupt a law-enforcement investigation, endanger national security or intelligence work, impede national defense or military operations, or hamper security remediation. (4) Within 180 days after December 27, 2020, the Director must submit to the listed Senate and House committees a strategy for using this information to counter malicious cyber activity.