Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) criticized former members of Congress for lobbying on behalf of TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, a Chinese tech company legally required to answer directly to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Mr. Gallagher made the comments during an appearance on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” aired on March 17. He was joined by Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), as the two talked about their TikTok bill, which passed the House with a 352–65 vote last week.
“There is an unprecedented lobbying campaign. They’re really weaponizing the swamp against legislative action,” Mr. Gallagher said, referring to ByteDance’s effort to prevent the legislation from passing.
“Over half a million dollars spent last quarter alone on seven different lobbying firms. It’s disgusting. Former members of Congress lobbying on behalf of TikTok,” Mr. Gallagher added. “By the way, that should be illegal. Members of Congress should not be allowed to lobby in general, let alone on behalf of foreign adversaries.”
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The CCP’s lobbying efforts in the United States have long been a concern. In January, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan federal agency, called the lobbying efforts “particularly insidious” and “aimed at shaping federal policymaking in furtherance of the Chinese government’s interests and goals,” according to its policy update. The agency recommended Congress pass bills to increase transparency on foreign lobbying and ban lobbying by agents acting on behalf of foreign adversaries like the CCP.
In 2023, ByteDance spent $8.7 million on federal lobbying, according to congressional disclosures.
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington-based think tank, said ByteDance “wields a lobbying contingent unmatched by any other Chinese firm,” according to an article published on its website on March 12.
“The company’s lobbying muscle includes over 45 lobbyists from storied K Street firms—such as Crossroads Strategies, K&L Gates, and Mehlman Consulting—as well as a litany of other influential insiders. These power players include former advisors to former U.S. House Speakers Kevin McCarthy and Nancy Pelosi and ex-aides to President Joe Biden,” FDD wrote.
The think tank named former Sens. John Breaux (D-La.) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.) as part of ByteDance’s lobbying group.
This lobbying arsenal has proven adept at navigating the corridors of power, evidenced by efforts last year to derail legislation that threatened ByteDance’s operational freedom in the United States,” FDD wrote.
TikTok Bill
The TikTok bill is called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (H.R. 7521). If enacted, the legislation would force the app to divest from its Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance. If TikTok decides not to do so, app stores will not be allowed to host the app.
However, the bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate, as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has not committed to advancing the legislation.
“We’ve gotten indication that the [Senate] leader is going to take it up in his process. And obviously, we respect his process,” Mr. Krishnamoorthi said. “Mike [Gallagher] and I have had conversations, very positive ones, with different members of the Senate who are very interested in this bill and who were very surprised by the size or the margin of the overwhelming bipartisan support in the House.”
The bill has garnered praise and criticism from both parties, with lawmakers debating related issues including First Amendment and government overreach.
Some senators have said that they wanted to get the legislation passed. On March 13, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kans.) issued a statement saying that the issue “is a matter of national security” and that he looked forward to this bill “coming to the Senate Floor quickly.”
Mr. Gallagher added that he believed TikTok sale should “absolutely” happen before the November elections.
“The opaque algorithm influencing what information you see, that would go away so I imagined it would actually increase in value. And I think all the more reason why we have to tackle this now, the closer we get to an election, the risk just gets greater and greater,” Mr. Gallagher said.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, in an annual assessment published on March 11, said that “TikTok accounts run by a PRC [People’s Republic of China] propaganda arm reportedly targeted candidates from both political parties during the U.S. midterm election cycle in 2022.”
The assessment warned that China “may attempt to influence the U.S. elections in 2024 at some level because of its desire to sideline critics of China and magnify U.S. societal divisions.”
“Every single intelligence community official that testified before the Intelligence Committee last week suggested under its current ownership structure, TikTok is a threat to national security, which is why we are trying to force TikTok to separate from Bytedance and by extension from the Chinese Communist Party.” Mr. Gallagher said.
