Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) laid out his legislative priorities for the coming months in a dear-colleague letter sent on Friday, notably including a bipartisan call to advance the TikTok divestment bill, which has been slow-walked in the upper chamber over the last few weeks.
Schumer wrote that the Senate has the “opportunity to make progress on bipartisan bills,” including legislation that passed the House last month and would force TikTok’s Chinese parent company to divest from the video app or face a ban in the U.S.
The Democratic senator did not disclose a specific position on TikTok, but he did offer to work with Senate Republicans who “are sincere about passing bipartisan legislation and willing to reject the extreme MAGA demands” that he accused House Republicans of pushing.
The Senate will reconvene on Monday after a two-week recess that put the TikTok bill on hold after it passed the House last month.
On March 13, a bipartisan coalition of congressmen overwhelmingly voted in favor of forcing ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, to sell the massively popular video-sharing platform in six months to a U.S.-approved buyer. If a divestment isn’t made within that time period, TikTok will face a ban in U.S. app stores. The bill passed 352 to 65, with 15 Republicans and 50 Democrats voting against it.
Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have been concerned about the Chinese Communist Party’s ability to spy on American users of the social-media app, but the legislation so far is facing delays in the Senate.
Many senators, including Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) and Ted Cruz (R., Texas), have said they will take their time reviewing the legislation before considering it on the Senate floor. By contrast, others such as Senators Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Mark Warner (D., Va.) have urged the upper chamber to act quickly. Senators Rand Paul (R., Ky.) and Mike Lee (R., Utah) are intent on opposing the bill once it comes to a floor vote on the grounds that it violates the First Amendment of both TikTok’s owners and its users.
President Joe Biden said he would sign the bill into law if it passes Congress, even though his 2024 reelection campaign uses a TikTok account.
Schumer has not given any timeline for action as he faces increasing pressure from outside groups to hold a vote. On Tuesday, the Mike Pence–founded Advancing American Freedom launched a $2 million ad campaign in several states pushing Schumer to move the TikTok measure to a full floor vote. The conservative policy organization’s ad campaign rivals TikTok’s, which spent $2 million persuading the public to pressure their senators into opposing the bill.
“TikTok is the Chinese Communist Party’s way to feed America’s youth their propaganda and collect data on all TikTok users,” Pence said in a statement.
“Last week, TikTok launched a $2 million ad campaign to stop the legislation that would disentangle the app from the CCP, but AAF is fighting back, launching an ad campaign to urge Congress to get the bill passed and signed into law. We can’t cede our national security to the Chinese Communist Party. The time for the Senate to act is now.”