The House once again passed a bill that could ban TikTok from the US unless its Chinese parent company ByteDance divests it — but this time, it’s in a way that will be harder for the Senate to stall.
The bill passed 360-58 as part of a larger bill related to sanctions on foreign adversaries like Russia. It’s part of a package of foreign aid bills that seek to provide military aid to Ukraine and Israel and humanitarian aid to Gaza. Due to the urgency of the funds, packaging the TikTok bill with these measures means that the Senate will need to consider the proposal more swiftly than it would as a standalone bill. The earlier TikTok bill, which passed the House 352-65 just last month, has so far 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 normally take up the bill before it proceeds to the floor, had remained noncommittal about it. But after the version in the foreign aid package was released, she said she supported the legislation.
Definitely makes sense to bundle banning an app with foreign aid, lol. Love how our government works. Now if someone opposes the tiktok ban, they’re also voting no to the aid to ukraine which is just insane.
Riders on the storm
No, they were separate bills. The Ukraine aid was on a different bill than the TikTok one. There was roughly speaking, a Ukraine aid bill, a Taiwan aid bill, an Israel aid bill, and the tik tok bill. All were voted on and passed separately.
They’re all in the same bill “H.R.8038 - 21st Century Peace through Strength Act” if you click that link in the post, that bill mentions the Ukraine aid as well as bytedance and tiktok
That bill does not have anything related to Ukraine in it, four separate bills, 8034, 8035, 8036, and 8038. Just all passed on the same day.
While HR 8038 bill has provisions about TikTok as you said, HR 8035 is the Ukraine bill.
https://rules.house.gov/bill/118/hr-8035
The tik tok bill 8038 passed with a vote of 360-58 while the Ukraine bill 8035 passed with a vote of 311-112.
8034 has the Israel aid and 8036 has Taiwan and other countries.
The bill with the TikTok provisions did have some other things in it though like sanctions on Iranian oil, and giving more powers to seize Russian assets.
Oh I see that makes sense, yeah I misunderstood it. Think the “part of a package” portion tripped me up
They just needed to wait a year or two for TikTok to stop being cool with the kids and this wouldn’t be such a big deal.
Of course, whatever the kids would move on to next will also be sending data to China. Just not for free.
