The Senate is newly receptive to legislation mandating the sale of TikTok after the House tweaked the bill to give its Chinese owners more “runway” to find a buyer.
The House passed a bill forcing the sale of the popular social app in March, fueled by concerns over spying by the Chinese government, but the push hit a wall in the Senate as lawmakers raised concerns over targeting a single company in legislation.
The top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee supported the bill, but Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), whose committee has jurisdiction, expressed reluctance. She previously introduced a competing measure that would have given the Commerce Department the ability to ban foreign-owned apps.
The House bill, which passed in a 352-65 vote, would have given ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, six months to finalize a sale before a nationwide ban went into effect, a window that Cantwell warned was too short.
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) declined to say whether he would give the bill a floor vote.
The House’s decision to tuck the divestment bill into a larger package on foreign aid was met with a heavy dose of skepticism this week. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), one of the biggest TikTok critics in the Senate, doubted it would make it into the final bill.
“That would just cause a massive meltdown over here,” Hawley said on Monday before the details of the legislation had been released. “I mean, that would just be — I can’t imagine.”
But the revelation that the House had adjusted the bill to extend the divestment time frame to as much as one year appears to have softened opposition. ByteDance would have 270 days to divest, while the White House could grant an additional 90-day extension.
Cantwell released a statement on Wednesday night lending her support to the updated bill, while reluctant members welcomed the longer window as putting it on better legal footing.
“I think it’s smart,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), a member of Cantwell’s Commerce Committee. “If they do give a longer divestiture period, we can look at them with a straight face and say this is not a shutdown. This is a forced divestiture, which is, I think, a stronger position.”
Schumer has yet to say what he thinks of the change. He told reporters at a Wednesday evening press conference that he would “study” the language.
But the update should not be an obstacle to the legislation’s original backers.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee, told the Washington Examiner “there’s a lot of ways to do it right” when asked about the longer divestiture period.
He declined to endorse the measure until he saw the legislative text but said he would support the forced sale “as long as the core of the bill is still achieved.”
Hawley did not consider the longer runway to be a “poison pill.”
“The divestiture period is pretty short, and I think if you lengthen it out a little bit,” he said, “that might help a group put together capital to buy it. So, I’d be fine with that.”
The TikTok bill amounts to a deal sweetener for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who is fending off outrage from his right flank over the $95 billion foreign aid package. He had pushed to include a resumption of liquefied natural gas exports in the legislation, but the White House rejected the offer.
President Joe Biden supports the TikTok measure, a rare area of common ground with the Republican-led House, despite a lobbying campaign by ByteDance.
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The House is expected to vote on the forced sale on Saturday as it considers stand-alone votes on aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. Johnson is advancing a fourth national security measure in that vote series, a catchall bill that includes the possible TikTok ban, meaning the Senate could act as soon as next week to bring it to the floor.
Schumer declined to say if the Senate will consider the package of bills next week, when the chamber is expected to be on recess, but told reporters he wants to move “expeditiously” on foreign aid.