House Republican leadership is moving forward with a vote on a bipartisan bill that would force ByteDance to sell TikTok — or face a ban — next Wednesday, despite former President Donald Trump’s public opposition to the measure.
House Republican leaders huddled Friday morning to confirm the House would move forward on the TikTok bill with plans to bring it to the House floor under suspension, a maneuver that speeds the process and limits amendments to bills that can win a two-thirds majority vote, according to two sources familiar with the plans.
The legislation from Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis. and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., the leaders of the House Select Committee on China, would force Beijing-based ByteDance to sell off TikTok within 180 days or otherwise would effectively ban the app in the U.S. by penalizing app stores that host it.
“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, referring to Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. “I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!”
The post initially prompted some worries on Capitol Hill about the bill’s fate next week, when Majority Leader Scalise said he would bring the bill for a vote on the House floor.
The legislation from Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi, introduced Tuesday, is backed by the Biden White House and designed to address longstanding national security concerns voiced by U.S. officials about the app’s Chinese ownership. It has broad bipartisan support in Congress, and on Friday President Biden — whose campaign joined the platform recently in a bid to reach younger voters — said he would sign the bill into law if it passes.
On Thursday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced the legislation in a 50-0 vote, in spite of — or, perhaps, in part because of — an aggressive campaign by TikTok to get its users to call congressional offices to object to the proposal. House Speaker Mike Johnson also endorsed the bill earlier this week.
“This legislation has a predetermined outcome: a total ban of TikTok in the United States,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement following that vote. “The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression. This will damage millions of businesses, deny artists an audience, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country.”
Source: https://www.semafor.com/article/03/08/2024/republicans-plan-vote-on-tiktok-ban-defying-trump