ByteDance has up to a year to sell TikTok and avoid a ban.
Free speech in AmeriKKKa is looking good! Americans should only rely on true, red-blooded, patriotic, and megacorporations like Microsoft and Google with their data!
Another bill that was added on was an Israel aid bill that sends Israel and the IDF a further 26.3 billion dollars.
The House packaged the TikTok bill — which upped the timeline for divestment from the six months allowed in the earlier version — with foreign aid to US allies, which effectively forced the Senate to consider the measures together.
It's super common like ComradeSalad said, but it works and it makes for super easy PR messaging too. Add some unpopular bill into a totally unrelated one. Oh you want to vote against the Ukraine war? Well, we put it in the same bill as a package for supplies for US military troops, so if you vote against it you will be comitting political suicide.
"Senator Pumpanddump voted against the America Loves Our Troops Act. Does this mean he hates our troops, you decide!"
The practice should be illegal, but so should half the things the US government does.