WASHINGTON — A House-passed bill that could ban TikTok in the U.S. won’t be taken up by the Senate any time soon. In fact, it could take months before any TikTok-related legislation hits the floor in the Democratic-controlled chamber.
Senators emerged Wednesday from a classified briefing about TikTok saying they were highly concerned that the popular social media app — owned by China-based parent company ByteDance — poses a serious national security threat to the U.S. and its people. But key senators appear to be in no hurry to take up the House-passed TikTok bill and are working on their own legislation to regulate the app.
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who organized Wednesday’s briefing along with Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner, D-Va., said after the closed-door meeting she might want to team with Warner again to hold a joint public hearing about TikTok.
But such a hearing would happen after Congress returns from its two-week Easter recess, which is scheduled to begin next week. Pressed about why she didn’t share the same urgency as House members, who rushed to pass the bill last week on a lopsided, bipartisan vote of 352-65, Cantwell replied: “I think it’s important to get it right.”
Congress is full of people who “promote things just to promote them, but they don’t have the cause and effect that we need,” Cantwell told reporters. “We need intent here, and the intent is we want to stop the nefarious bad actors from doing deleterious things in the United States that might harm U.S. citizens, U.S. government or U.S. military.”
“So we’re going to do that. We’re going to get it done. And we’re not going to take forever,” she said, adding that she will meet with the House bill’s author, Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., on Thursday.
Warner said he is determined to move a TikTok bill this year: “If we don’t, I think we’ve missed a huge opportunity.”
Intelligence officials and House and Senate…
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