The House on Wednesday passed bipartisan legislation to force TikTok’s Chinese parent company to sell the wildly popular social media platform or face a ban in the U.S. H.R. 7521 – Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act would, If enacted, give ByteDance six months to divest from TikTok before app stores would start prohibiting access. The final vote was 352-65, surpassing the two-thirds majority threshold needed to pass the legislation under a suspension of the rules. It’s unclear if it will be welcomed by the same level of support in the Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) hasn’t committed to putting it on the floor. In the House vote, 15 Republicans and 50 Democrats voted against the bill. Some notable “no” votes from Democrats include ranking member of House Intelligence Jim Himes (Connecticut), Whip Katherine Clark (Massachusetts), ranking member of the Rules Committee Jim McGovern (Massachusetts), ranking member of Foreign Affairs Gregory Meeks (New York), ranking member of Judiciary Jerrold Nadler (New York), and ranking member of Ways and Means Richard Neal (Massachusetts). Opponents have said the bill violates the First Amendment rights of users.
The House as now adjourned until Tuesday, March 19th with Republicans holding their annual retreat at The Greenbrier, with reports saying that well fewer than 100 Republicans have said they will be at the retreat, less than half the total of 219 Republican representatives in the House.
For today, the Senate is considering the nomination of Dennis B. Hankins to be Ambassador to the Republic of Haiti and a Motion to invoke cloture on the nomination of Nicole G. Berner to be United States Circuit Judge for the Fourth Circuit
