RFC 2146 (rfc2146) - Page 2 of 12

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RFC 2146         U.S. Government Internet Domain Names          May 1997


U.S. GOVERNMENT INTERNET DOMAIN NAMES POLICY

   The .GOV domain is delegated from the root authority to the US
   Federal Networking Council.  The .GOV domain is for registration of
   US governmental entities on the federal level only.  Registrations
   for state and local governmental agencies shall be made under the .US
   domain in accordance with the policies for that domain.  Further
   references in this document to .GOV should be understood to apply to
   FED.US as well.  The most succinct form of the policy is "one agency,
   one name".  The agency may choose its own name, but an easily
   recognized acronym is suggested.  The following paragraphs enumerate
   the types of agencies eligible for registration and the types that
   are not eligible:


         1) The document "Codes for the Identification of Federal and
      Federally Assisted Organizations", FIPS 95-1 (or its successor)
      lists the official names of US Government agencies.  Either that
      document or the US Government Manual can be used to determine that
      an entity is eligible for registration as a second level domain of
      .GOV.

              A) Top-level entities (e.g., those in FIPS 95-1 with codes
         ending in 00 such a"1200 Department of Agriculture"), those in
         the US Government Manual listed as "Departments, Independent
         Establishments (not Corporations), and all the Boards,
         Commissions, and Committees"), and independent agencies and
         organizations (e.g., "National Science Foundation" and other
         non-indented listings unless prohibited below) as listed in
         this document are eligible for registration directly under
         .GOV.

              B) Cross-agency collaborative organizations (e.g.,
         "Federal Networking Council", "Information Infrastructure Task
         Force") are eligible for registration under .GOV upon
         presentation of the chartering document and are the only non-
         FIPS-listed or non-US-Government-Manual-listed organizations
         eligible for registration under .GOV.

              C) Subsidiary, non-autonomous components of top-level or
         other entities are not eligible for separate registration.
         International organizations listed in this document are NOT
         eligible for registration under .GOV.  Subsidiary components
         should register as third-level domains under their parent
         organization.  Other Federal entities may apply to the FED.US
         domain.





Federal Networking Council   Informational