US President Joe Biden speaks after signing the foreign aid bill at the White House in Washington, DC on April 24, 2024.
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed legal measures to provide aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, as well as to force TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell the social media platform or face a national ban.
Biden's formal approval ends a six-month saga of tense political battles on Capitol Hill that led to an impasse over the issue of foreign aid.
“The road to my office was a hard road. 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 moment.”
Biden had indicated his intention to sign the bill into law after the House of Representatives passed the proposal on Saturday. The Senate gave the green light late Tuesday night by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 79-18, sending it to Biden's desk for his signature.
The law allocates nearly $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, $26 billion to Israel, and $8 billion for security in Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region. It also requires ByteDance to sell TikTok within nine months — or a year, if Biden requests a 90-day extension — or face a nationwide ban in the United States.
TikTok has already vowed to fight the measure.
“This unconstitutional law is a ban on TikTok, which we will challenge in court,” the company wrote in a statement Wednesday on X’s website after Biden’s signing. “This ban would destroy seven million businesses and silence 170 million Americans.”
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew posted a video response to the enactment of the TikTok bill, calling it a “disappointing moment” and affirming the company's commitment to legally challenging the law.
Despite Biden's official support for the TikTok bill, his 2024 reelection campaign told NBC News on Wednesday that it will continue to use the social media platform to reach voters for at least the next year. Notably, ByteDance's nine-month to one-year deadline allows it to maintain ownership of TikTok through the November election.
Along with opposition to TikTok, the bill has been the subject of heated political attacks, including threats to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., from hardline Republicans like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
These threats were part of the reason Johnson suspended foreign aid even after, in February, the Senate passed a similar version of the $95 billion bill to fund Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, although that bill did not include TikTok provisions.
But last week, with that pink slide still on the horizon, Johnson decided to end the foreign aid impasse in the House of Representatives in the wake of Iran's attempt to strike Israel on April 13, which sparked new bipartisan pressure on the United States to help its allies.
In the following days, Johnson put four separate bills to a vote in the House, three of which would provide foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and a fourth, which would include other foreign policy proposals including the TikTok bill.
Although Johnson's move came with professional risks, the Speaker of Parliament has stood by her so far, buoyed by popular support from former President Donald Trump.
“I know history will judge this well,” Johnson said Wednesday morning in a radio interview with The Hugh Hewitt Show. “It was the right thing to do.”
