Outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) backs putting the Senate-passed bill to ban the Chinese social media app TikTok from U.S. government devices in the spending bill next week, after previously not committing to putting the same legislation up for a vote.
Pelosi’s support for putting the legislation into the year-long spending bill, reported by Reuters, comes just one day after the Speaker said she had not yet decided if she would bring the Senate-passed legislation to a vote and after the Republican Leader, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), called on her to “immediately allow an up-or-down vote.”
The Speaker said on Thursday that she was “checking with the administration” on the “language” and did not know if she would be putting it on the agenda for next week.
Coincidentally, the very same day, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre declined to say if President Joe Biden would support legislation banning the Chinese social media app and stated, “We’re going to let Congress move forward with their process.”
Earlier in the week, the Senate passed Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-MO) No TikTok on Government Devices Act by unanimous consent amid national security risks. The bill would ultimately ban the Chinese social media app or any of its successors or services developed or provided by ByteDance Limited and any entities from the company, except for law enforcement and national security interests.
The United States Senate passed legislation Wednesday night by unanimous consent to ban the Chinese social media app TikTok from U.S. government devices amid national security risks. https://t.co/St2K1Efy72
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) December 16, 2022
A spokesperson for TikTok said in a statement after the Senate passed the legislation that banning the Chinese social media app would do “nothing to advance U.S. national security interests.”
On the state level, numerous governors have announced that their states would also ban TikTok from state government devices. Just this week, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte (R), Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R), and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) joined other Republican governors.
In 2020, under then-President Donald Trump, the administration tried to ban TikTok, but it resulted in the Chinese social media app’s parent company divesting the platform to an American company, as previously noted by Breitbart News.
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.
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