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