As we all know by now, TikTok may soon be banned in the United States. On March 13, the House passed a bill that would give TikTok’s parent company ByteDance the choice to sell their platform or have their app and web-hosting services removed in the U.S. Though the Senate has yet to make a move to send this bill to the president, there is pressure from the House and White House to expedite this process. The importance of this bill to our government is evident, given the House took only eight days to pass it after it was introduced. So, if you are wondering where our government’s priorities lie, here are some bills that were introduced in the Senate over a year ago, but have made little progress to advance to the president.
- Korematsu-Takai Civil Liberties Protection Act
In January 2023, this bill entered the Senate that would guarantee due process protections for Americans unjustly detained based on an actual or perceived protected characteristic. Protected characteristics include age, race, sex, gender, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity or nationality. Currently, citizens of the U.S. may be detained or imprisoned if they are considered a national security risk. The regulations for detainment do not specifically prohibit this action based on these characteristics. This bill would protect Americans’ vital freedoms by preventing imprisonment without the use of the legal system.
- Ethan’s Law
In regards to child safety, this bill would require owners of firearms to properly store any weapons on residential properties occupying persons under 18. Also introduced in January 2023, this bill aims to stop minors or ineligible residents from gaining access to these weapons without permission. The goal is to prevent suicide, school shootings and other acts of gun violence by those who should not own or have access to firearms.
- Reproductive Freedom for All Act
This bill means exactly what it sounds like: All persons should have the right to make reproductive decisions without government interference. Introduced in February 2023, one goal of this act is to reinstate Roe v. Wade in order to protect a woman’s decision to terminate a pregnancy. It would also create policies to ensure the health and safety of the woman and eliminate obstacles preventing her decision. Additionally, this bill would secure the Supreme Court’s holdings in other cases regarding contraception: The right for married couples, single persons and minors to obtain contraceptives. This bill would return and protect reproductive autonomy for all Americans.
- Stop Spying Bosses Act
Introduced in February 2023, this act protects the privacy of workers by prohibiting, or requiring disclosure of, the surveillance, monitoring and collection of certain worker data by employers. According to this bill, employers must communicate to their employees and job applicants any surveillance in the workplace including what data is collected, how this data is used and the effects of monitoring on the worker’s performance assessments. Employers also may not use workplace surveillance for reasons such as monitoring worker’s business regarding a labor organization, retrieving a worker’s health information that is unrelated to their duties, tracking workers who are off duty or in private areas, or using automated decision systems (e.g. AI) to predict a worker’s behavior unrelated to their job. Additionally, any work-related decision made by an employer related to surveillance data must be disclosed, reviewed and approved by the employee. This bill serves to protect the workers’ privacy, prevent termination that is not work-related and provide full disclosure to a company’s employees.
Though our government has concerns for TikTok as a national security threat, there are other more important or just as important federal decisions that should be of higher priority. These bills are important to the safety of Americans and should receive the same attention that the TikTok ban is getting, and certainly not sitting for over a year waiting for further review.