An updated TikTok bill changes the game in Washington
As soon as next week, the Senate could be forced to confront a controversial bill it’s been sitting on for a month — and open a new front in a geopolitical argument.
A bill to potentially ban TikTok could be passed and signed into law as soon as next week, depending how quickly the Senate moves — which would mark a sharp ending to four years of attempts by two presidents to curtail the influence of the Chinese-linked app.
If President Joe Biden signs the bill as promised, it would mark an abrupt close to a frantic and high-powered pressure effort by the popular social media app to stop the bill. So far, the company’s efforts to deploy the clout of its users, including urging TikTokers to swamp lawmakers’ phones and bringing creators to Capitol Hill, have largely backfired.
A direct effort by Chinese diplomats to lobby Hill staffers, reported by POLITICO, instead only hardened the sense of Washington China hawks that the app was a dangerous proxy for Beijing.
With the House of Representatives set to pass the TikTok bill as part of a major aid package over the weekend, the ball would be in the Senate’s court, where friction already seems much lower than it was in March, when the TikTok bill first moved through the House.
If the bill passes, TikTok is then expected to shift its fight to the courts, arguing the law is unconstitutional, unfairly targeting a single company and violating the First Amendment.
All of this looked far less urgent last month, when the U.S. Senate seemed ready to slow-roll any kind of forced sale — parking the bill in the Commerce Committee after the House overwhelmingly passed it in March.
This time around, the Senate can’t dodge the ball headed at them: The House’s TikTok bill was wrapped this week into a set of large aid and national security bills to support Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, considered priority legislation for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. The House could approve the package and send it to the Senate as early as this weekend.
Already, Senate friction seems to be vanishing. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, who earlier had said the bill likely wouldn’t hold up in the courts, now says she supports the updated version. The original version had called for a forced sale within six months, and the new version extends that timeline up to a year.
“As I’ve said, extending the divestment period is necessary to ensure there is enough time for a new buyer to get a deal done,” Cantwell (D-Wash.) said this week. “I support this updated legislation.”
Schumer’s office declined to say when he would bring it to a Senate vote. If the House passes the bills, the Senate could cancel its planned recess and take them up as soon as next week.
In a sign of potential retaliation from a geopolitical rival, China reportedly ordered Apple to remove Meta’s WhatsApp and Threads from its app store Friday. While the move was largely symbolic — since both apps are already technically illegal in China — it hints that the door could be open for a wider crackdown on American companies.
TikTok’s poorly calculated lobbying in D.C. appears to have only emboldened lawmakers who continue to rush through the legislation, and Cantwell’s recent sign onto the latest TikTok bill clears a key hurdle to Senate movement.
In the Senate, the updated House TikTok bill also got support from key Commerce and Intelligence Committee Republicans involved in the TikTok negotiations.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), ranking member on the Commerce Committee, said the updated House version “may well” help its Senate prospects given that it has now gotten Cantwell’s blessing.
Senate Intelligence Vice Chair Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said he’s fine with extension as well, and it could help its passage. “It was one of the concerns we kept hearing from people. I think we’ve been waiting to get this done for four years — what’s 180 more days?” he said.
Cantwell had raised other constitutional concerns — dealing with the bill specifically naming one company and due process issues — but in the latest negotiations she appeared to concede to just the one-year extension. She told POLITICO, “Could it be improved? Yes,” but she supported the House changes.
The one-year extension was agreed to when Cantwell and Warner met with Schumer on Tuesday night, according to a Senate staffer who was granted anonymity to speak more freely.
One potential sticking point: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has opposed the bill from the start as government overreach, and has First Amendment concerns for the 170 million Americans who could potentially lose access to the app. He also opposes the larger foreign aid package the bill is now attached to.
He could block the bills if they were brought up for an expedited unanimous consent vote or could filibuster them. To end a filibuster, Schumer would have to make a motion to invoke cloture, requiring 60 votes, to stop debate on the bill and bring it to a roll call vote.
Paul told reporters Thursday that he would attempt to drag out the vote if the Senate has to return next week to vote. “I’ve told them that if they’re going to make us come back next week, then we might as well be here the whole time,” he said.