The Dwelling once extra passed a bill that can perchance well perchance ban TikTok from the US except its Chinese mother or father company ByteDance divests it — however this time, it’s in a means that will likely be extra tough for the Senate to stall.
The bill passed 360-58 as piece of a bigger bill connected to sanctions on foreign adversaries love Russia. It’s piece of a bundle of foreign aid bills that inspect to give defense drive aid to Ukraine and Israel and humanitarian aid to Gaza. Attributable to the urgency of the funds, packaging the TikTok bill with these measures means that the Senate will have to possess in concepts the proposal extra rapid that it may perhaps perhaps most likely perchance well well as a standalone bill. The sooner TikTok bill, which passed the Dwelling 352-65 simply last month, has so some distance lingered in the Senate, with lawmakers there giving mixed messages about its future.
Notably, Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA), whose committee would usually soak up the bill earlier than it proceeds to the ground, had remained noncommittal about it. But after the model in the foreign aid bundle used to be launched, she mentioned she supported the rules.
That’s since the updated language extends the timeline for ByteDance to divest TikTok earlier than the effective ban would be enforced. ByteDance would fetch up to a 12 months to total the sale, in location of simply six months, in uncover to e book clear of a ban. The new Dwelling text would present an initial divestment length of 9 months and give the president discretion to lengthen it one more three, assuming there’s progress in the direction of a deal.
All the strategy thru debate on the bill Saturday morning, Sleek York’s Rating. Gregory Meeks, the discontinuance Democrat on the Dwelling International Affairs Committee, mentioned he supported the bundle that entails the updated TikTok rules, although he voted in opposition to the standalone model. Meeks mentioned he adversarial the earlier standalone TikTok bill “out of ache that it’d be a huge authorization that can perchance well well be misused some distance beyond what we in Washington are presently debating, beyond simply TikTok.”
But, he added, “the bill took a step in the critical direction with a extra realistic timeframe for a advanced divesture course of. Let me whine for the list, that I imagine this bill is set one company that additional authorities equipped to the government branch or to be interpreted narrowly.”
Rating. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) did now not suddenly address the TikTok bill when he stood in opposition to the Dwelling bundle on the ground Saturday however alluded to the means the app has proven Individuals the destruction that’s played out in Gaza below Israeli Top Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inform. Castro voted in opposition to the earlier standalone TikTok bill.
“Now we possess seen how Top Minister Netanyahu’s government has ancient American weapons to murder indiscriminately, to drive famine,” Castro mentioned. “We will now not ruin out what we look earlier than us day-after-day. That is the blessing of as of late’s skills: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, all of it. And once we look it, now we have to desire what we’re going to scheme about it. Are we going to participate in that carnage or now not?”
Rating. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), the ranking member on the Dwelling Pick out Committee on the Chinese Communist Occasion who helped lead the contemporary TikTok rules, emphasized that the bill “is now not a ban, it’s about a divestment. And it’s now not truly about TikTok, it’s about ByteDance, the corporate that owns TikTok and is surely controlled by the Chinese Communist Occasion.” (TikTok has denied such a connection).
The Senate is out of session this coming week for the Passover ruin, which may perchance well well lengthen action in that chamber. Leadership may perhaps perhaps well well issue senators wait on early to vote, however that can perchance well well be stressful by scheduling conflicts. As Politico lately great, some lawmakers are scheduled for congressional delegation trips over the ruin, which may perchance well well produce it extra tough to issue wait on ample senators early to chase the bundle.
If the TikTok bill stays in the final model of the Senate bundle and clears that hurdle, it may perhaps perhaps most likely perchance well well head to President Joe Biden’s desk. He’s already dedicated to signing the TikTok rules, may perhaps perhaps well well level-headed it chase.
