TikTok Divestiture Bill Could Face Amendments in Senate

If the Senate Commerce Committee takes up a House-passed bill that would ban TikTok if China’s ByteDance does not divest itself of the popular social media application, committee members probably will propose “multiple amendments” to improve the legislation, the panel’s top Republican said last week.

While Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, welcomed the House’s recent vote to approve the TikTok bill (see 2403130051), he would likely be among the committee members offering amendments, he told Export Compliance Daily in a brief hallway interview at the Capitol March 14. He declined to elaborate on the nature of those potential amendments.

Commerce Chair Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., haven't indicated how the Senate will proceed. Cantwell has said she would be consulting with her congressional colleagues “to try to find a path forward” on TikTok legislation (see 2403080009). Schumer has said only that the Senate would review the House bill.

Even if the bill clears the committee, it likely will face opposition on the Senate floor. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said the measure is unconstitutional because it would violate the First Amendment’s freedom of speech protection and the Fifth Amendment’s due process protection.

“The government can’t shut down that kind of content without violating the First Amendment,” Paul told reporters last week. Under the Fifth Amendment, “you can’t take someone’s property without convicting them of a crime.”

Sen. Mark Warner, R-Va., who initially expressed constitutional concerns about the bill (see 2403060079), told reporters last week that DOJ legal experts he consulted believe the bill’s authors have “threaded the needle pretty effectively.” He plans to talk to additional experts to ensure the legislation could withstand a legal challenge.

“We’re not trying to eliminate something that a lot of people like,” Warner said. “We’re just trying to make sure that ultimately that control [of TikTok] is not held by the Communist Party of China.”

If TikTok ends up being put up for sale, Warner said, he hopes the app attracts multiple bidders, and he noted that former Trump administration Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is reportedly trying to put together an investor group to buy TikTok. The senator acknowledged it could be challenging to assemble potential buyers, as the sale price “could possibly be north of $100 billion."

Warner said one of the issues being discussed in the Senate is whether ByteDance should be given more time to sell TikTok than the six months provided by the House bill. “I’m talking with folks on that,” he said.