U.S. President Joe Biden speaks after signing the foreign aid bill at the White House in Washington, DC, April 24, 2024.
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
President Joe Biden signed legislation Wednesday aimed at providing aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, and forcing TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the social media platform.
Biden’s formal endorsement ends a six-month saga of tense political battles on Capitol Hill that led to an impasse over foreign aid.
“The road to my desk has been difficult. It should have been easier and it should have gotten there sooner,” Biden said Wednesday after signing the bill. “But in the end, we did what America always does, we rose to the occasion.”
Biden had signaled his intention to sign the bill after the House passed the proposal on Saturday. The Senate gave the green light Tuesday evening in a mostly bipartisan 79-18 vote, sending it to Biden’s desk for his signature.
The law provides about $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, $26 billion to Israel and $8 billion for security in Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific. It also requires ByteDance to sell TikTok within nine months — or a year, if Biden invokes a 90-day extension — or face a nationwide ban in the United States.
TikTok has already committed to fighting this measure.
“This unconstitutional law is a ban on TikTok, and we will challenge it in court,” the company wrote in a statement Wednesday. statement on X after Biden signed. “This ban would devastate seven million businesses and silence 170 million Americans.”
cnbc
