Washington D.C. — House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) delivered the following remarks on the House Floor in support of H.R. 7521, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. The bipartisan legislation will protect Americans by preventing foreign adversaries, such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), from targeting, surveilling, and manipulating the American people through applications, like TikTok.

“I rise today in support of H.R. 7521, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.

“Foreign adversaries, like the Chinese Communist Party, pose the greatest national security threat of our time.

“TikTok’s access to 177 million American users makes it a valuable propaganda tool for the CCP to exploit.

“Over the past week, we saw in real time how CCP-controlled TikTok used its influence and power to force users to contact their representatives if they wanted to continue using the app.

“This is just a small taste of how the CCP weaponizes applications it controls to manipulate tens of millions of people to further its agenda.

“Today’s legislation will end this abuse by preventing apps controlled by foreign adversaries from targeting, surveilling, and manipulating the American people.

“We have given TikTok a clear choice: Separate from your parent company ByteDance, which is beholden to the CCP, and remain operational in the United States, or side with the CCP and face the consequences.

“The choice is TikTok’s.

“Companies controlled by a foreign adversary, like the CCP, will NEVER embrace American values like freedom of speech, human rights, the rule of law, and a free press.

“If given the choice, they will always choose the path for more control, more surveillance, and more manipulation.

“And in the case of TikTok, we wouldn’t even know.

“Today we will send a clear message that we will not tolerate our adversaries weaponizing our freedoms against us.”