Other hearing participants were less optimistic. The ITU meeting, "if we're not vigilant, just might break the Internet," said Representative Greg Walden, an Oregon Republican and subcommittee chairman.

Verveer noted that the U.S. government would not be bound by decisions at the ITU meeting, but delegates there could set the expectations for international regulation of the Internet.

Subcommittee members said they are united in opposition to any proposals to give the U.N. or individual countries more control over the Internet or to tax Internet traffic. On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of subcommittee members, led by Representative Mary Bono Mack, a California Republican, saying it is the "consistent and unequivocal policy of the United States to promote a global Internet free from government control."

Some proposals for the December conference would "fundamentally alter the governance and operation of the Internet," the resolution said.

Russia, China and other countries will likely continue to push for expanded U.N. control of the Internet that could lead to censorship and a balkanization of the Web, Robert McDowell, a Republican member of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, told the subcommittee.