Rubio Against Bipartisan TikTok Bill Despite Growing Support
Banning TikTok outright is a better approach than relying on the Commerce Department to take action against the Chinese-owned social media app, Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told us last week. Several senators, both Republican and Democrat, told us they're interested in co-sponsoring a bill that favors the latter approach (see 2303080075).
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The Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology (Restrict) Act would allow Commerce to review and block tech transactions that pose “undue” national security risk. Sponsors say it offers a better, more comprehensive approach than targeting TikTok with a ban. The bill is sponsored by at least 12 senators and has the White House’s support. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., told us Thursday she will support the bill. Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.; Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; and John Kennedy, R-La., told us they’re interested in signing on.
Rubio said it’s the wrong approach, noting the bill prevents the U.S. from acting against a company going through a national security review by the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). “It codifies the existing system, which has done nothing about TikTok,” he said. “And it actually prevents us from doing anything against companies as long as they’re going through the CFIUS process. I think the better approach is to just flat out ban them.” Rubio has pursued various legislative proposals for banning TikTok with Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., and Sen. Angus King, I-Maine (see 2212270051 and 2302170033).
Banning TikTok in the U.S. would be a ban on the “export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide,” the company said in a statement Monday. “For some time now, our status has been debated in public in a way that is divorced from the facts and the significant advances we've made in implementing Project Texas. We will continue to do our part to deliver a comprehensive national security plan for the American people.”
The House Commerce Committee passed several TikTok data security bills last week, with two decisive, bipartisan votes (see 2302080052). HR-750 passed 47-1 and HR-813 passed 50-0. HR-742 passed 28-22 and HR-784 passed 28-22.
The Senate bill creates a process that’s “more likely to be successfully defended in court” than an outright ban because the Commerce decision would be fact-based, co-sponsor Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., told us. Commerce Department action “makes sense” because the business world is where the U.S. is losing most of the information that’s “being used against us,” said Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., also a sponsor. This “structured legal approach, defined by Congress” allows Commerce to address an array of threats, said Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska.
“I would support that bill,” said Shaheen, citing the national security threats from TikTok. Blumenthal said he thinks it’s a “good bill. I haven’t reviewed every detail, but I’m inclined to co-sponsor. ... I think we need to consider seriously whether to ban entirely.”
“I think I’m glad that that’s moving ahead, but I haven’t studied it in detail,” said Grassley: It’s “my gut reaction” to support the bill but nothing is final yet. “I’m leaning yes right now,” said Kennedy. “But I’m not a categorical yes. It’s a big step.”
The bill allows the Commerce Department to assess “appropriate protections” against national security threats, said Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah. “People who want to infiltrate America and spy on us are always gonna say that they have the right to do so, which they don’t.”
There “ought to be a way” to allow a version of TikTok that doesn’t “feed communist China,” said Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who hasn’t signed onto the bill. “That would be my preferred outcome,” but “if a ban is the only way to protect the country, count me in.”
“I haven't looked at the bill,” said Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich. “We obviously want to make sure the data is secured and is not going to China. It’s something we definitely have to look at.”