US President Joe Biden speaks after signing the international assist invoice on the White Home in Washington, DC, on April 24, 2024.
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Pictures
President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed into legislation measures to offer assist to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, in addition to to compel Chinese language TikTok mum or dad firm ByteDance to promote the social media platform or face a nationwide ban.
Biden’s official approval ends a six-month saga of tense political battles on Capitol Hill that led to a impasse on the problem of international assist.
“The trail to my desk was a tough path. It ought to have been simpler and it ought to’ve gotten there sooner,” Biden mentioned Wednesday after signing the invoice. “However in the long run we did what America at all times does, we rose to the second.”
Biden had signaled his intention to signal the invoice into legislation after the Home handed the proposal on Saturday. The Senate gave its personal inexperienced mild late Tuesday night time in an overwhelmingly bipartisan 79-18 vote, sending it to Biden’s desk for his signature.
The legislation earmarks roughly $60 billion in assist for Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel and $8 billion for safety in Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific. It additionally requires ByteDance to promote TikTok inside 9 months — or a yr, if Biden invokes a 90-day extension — or else face a nationwide ban within the U.S.
TikTok has already vowed to struggle the measure.
“This unconstitutional legislation is a TikTok ban, and we are going to problem it in courtroom,” the corporate wrote in a Wednesday assertion on X following Biden’s signing. “This ban would devastate seven million companies and silence 170 million People.”
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew posted a video response to the enactment of the TikTok invoice, calling it a “disappointing second” and reiterating the corporate’s dedication to legally problem the legislation.
Regardless of Biden’s official help of the TikTok invoice, his 2024 reelection marketing campaign advised NBC Information Wednesday that it might proceed utilizing the social media platform to achieve voters for no less than the following yr. Notably, the nine-month to one-year deadline for ByteDance permits it to take care of possession of TikTok via the November election.
Together with TikTok’s pushback, the invoice had been the topic of heated political assaults, together with threats to oust Home Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., from hardline Republicans like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
These threats have been a part of the explanation that Johnson stalled the international assist even after the Senate, in February, handed the same $95 billion model of the invoice to fund Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, although that invoice didn’t embrace the TikTok provisions.
However final week, with that pink slip nonetheless looming, Johnson determined to finish the Home’s international assist stalemate following Iran’s tried strike on Israel on April 13, which triggered recent bipartisan strain for the U.S. to assist its allies.
Within the following days, Johnson put 4 separate payments to a Home vote, three of which would offer international assist to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and a fourth, which would come with different international coverage proposals together with the TikTok invoice.
Although Johnson’s transfer got here with skilled dangers, the speaker has to this point stood by it, boosted by public help from former President Donald Trump.
“I do know that historical past goes to guage this effectively,” Johnson mentioned Wednesday morning in a radio interview on the “Hugh Hewitt Present.” “It was the best factor to do.”
