U.S. Government Internet Domain Names

Status of this Memo This memo provides information for the Internet community. This memo does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Abstract This memo provides an update and clarification to RFC 1816. This document describes the registration policies for the top-level domain ".GOV". The purpose of the domain is to provide naming conventions that identify US Federal government agencies in order to facilitate access to their electronic resources. This memo provides guidance for registrations by Federal Agencies that avoids name duplication and facilitates responsiveness to the public. It restricts registrations to coincide with the approved structure of the US government and the advice of its Chief Information Officers. Two documents are recognized as constituting documentation on the US government structure: FIPS 95-1 provides a standard recognized structure into which domain registrations for .GOV and FED.US can fit; and, the US Government Manual [3], a special publication of the Federal Register, provides official documentation of the government structure. The latter document may be subject to more timely updates than the former. Either document is suitable for determining which entities qualify for second-level domain registration within .GOV and FED.US. As a side effect, this RFC reduces the number of .GOV and FED.US level registrations and reduces the workload on the registration authority. Previous versions of this document did not address the FED.US domain. This document anticipates the migration of the .GOV domain into the FED.US domain, in keeping with common practice on the Internet today.