Fellow Conservative,

Debate over the fate of TikTok has rung throughout the halls of Congress. Members of Congress are falling on both sides of the issue with little to no regard for party, making this debate perhaps the least partisan issue in recent memory.

Meanwhile, Congress is also halfway through government spending bills and states are making great strides in passing conservative legislation. Here is what you need to know:

Time's Up for TikTok

First, the debate around Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (H.R. 7521) has been flooded with inaccurate information. It is important to get the facts straight, and Heritage Action has a helpful Myth vs Fact document.

Read the full doc, but here’s a short summary:

Myth #1: This bill would ban TikTok
Fact: This would require TikTok’s Chinese Communist Party (CCP) controlled parent company, ByteDance, to divest its ownership of TikTok or face restrictions and penalties. This is fundamentally a question of national security, not TikTok as a platform, as the CCP can and does harvest the personal data of TikTok’s 170 million American users.

Myth #2 : This bill targets TikTok users
Fact: This bill contains no enforcement actions that target individual users.

Myth #3: This bill would violate the 1st amendment and violate free speech.
Fact: This bill does not restrict the content of users, only the conduct of business which has long been upheld by the Supreme Court as district from the 1st Amendment.

Myth #4: TikTok’s abuse should be addressed through privacy legislation.
Fact: Simply enacting privacy laws to restrict the access of data from China would not resolve the myriad issues stemming from the Communist Chinese Party’s control of TikTok.

Myth #5: This bill would make other social media companies more powerful.
Fact: Nearly every TikTok user in the U.S. already uses other social media profiles.

Myth #6: The bill gives the President an expansive new power to ban other apps.
Fact: The proposed legislation does not grant the President broad authority to ban apps at will.It has a very narrowly tailored definition that could only apply to social media apps and associated websites (TikTok.com, for example) controlled by China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea and pose a national security threat. That list of four countries is in statute (Title 10) and can only be changed by an act of Congress.

Myth #7: This bill is a slippery slope that would be used against conservatives.
Fact: The bill leaves no room for interpretation by bureaucrats when it comes to the question of ownership.

Myth #8: TikTok is too big for anyone to buy.
Fact: Despite TikTok's estimated value of hundreds of billions of dollars, several potential buyers have expressed interest in acquiring the company outright in recent years.

Given all of these facts, Heritage Action issued a Key Vote urging members to support this legislation. Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (H.R. 7521) passed the House, 352-65. See how your representative voted >>>HERE<<<

Now, it is up to the Senate to protect Americans from CCP espionage.

>>>Call your Senators and tell them to pass H.R. 7521

Spending Update

Last week, Congress passed the first tranche government-funding bills. It combined six of the twelve appropriations/funding bills into one “minibus.” This minibus package spent $436 billion and did not include any of the necessary spending cuts to ease inflationary pressures, which have still not receded. It also included more than $12.5 billion in earmarks for pet projects and political leverage.

For these reasons, Heritage Action issued a Key Vote “NO.”

Sometime this weekend it is expected that official text for a second minibus to fund the other half of the government will be released. We anticipate the package to include full year funding and inadequate policy changes for Defense, Financial Services-General Government, Labor-HHS-Education, Legislative Branch, and State-Foreign Operations. Several issues remain for negotiators in the Department of Homeland Security funding bill and we believe lawmakers will simply extend funding WITHOUT policy or spending level changes.

Exact language of the bill has not been released, but it will not receive Heritage Action’s support unless it meets our long held criteria to secure the border and reduce spending.

Legislating Wins at the State Level

South Carolina

The Palmetto State is working to join over a dozen other states in protecting children from so-called “gender affirming” medical interventions for children under the age of 18.

Children are not experiments. Anyone suffering from gender confusion deserves compassionate care NOT irreversible surgeries and dangerous live altering cross-sex hormones.

>>>READ more about South Carolina’s Help Not Harm bill (HB 4624)

Oklahoma

The Oklahoma State House passed HB 1617 & HB 3541. Together, the bills protect Oklahomans’ savings and economy from the harmful impacts of the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) agenda by requiring asset managers to uphold their fiduciary duty and prohibiting state contracts with companies that engage in political boycotts. The Oklahoma State Senate should now hear and pass these bills to protect Oklahomans’ savings and jobs.

For more information on ESG and how to fight it, visit ESGHurts.com.

Georgia

The Peach State’s Senate has also taken a huge step to protecting Georgians from the ESG agenda by voting unanimously to support HB 481. This bill would prevent Georgia's state pensions from asset managers who make financial decisions based on political or social criteria rather than fulfill their fiduciary duty.

Georgia is looking to protect its citizen’s dollars by also preemptively banning the use of any form of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) which is a form of government-run digital currency designed to replace the U.S. dollar. For more information on CBDCs, watch Georgia State Director James Quarles’ testimony before the Georgia Senate.

Wisconsin

The Badger State has passed AB 377 to protect women’s sports from delusional gender ideologues who want men to compete against women athletes.

Governor Tony Evers has threatened to veto this commonsense bill. If you live in Wisconsin, call his office at (608) 266-1212 and urge him to protect women’s sports by supporting this bill.

The conservative movement could not survive without the active participation of you, the grassroots. Thank you for all that you do to help this country through the advancement of conservative policies.

- Ryan and the Heritage Action team

Join the fight to advance the conservative agenda.