HR 8038 – Sanctions and TikTok Ban: No.

This bill is a collection of several minor bills I support, including greater reporting of Fentanyl traffic and Iranian human rights violations, and tightened sanctions on Iranian oil and weapons exports.  But it also includes two major provisions that I cannot support.  One is the ban on TikTok, which I believe is an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment.  The other is the REPO act, that would seize sovereign Russian assets.  This would be an unprecedented peacetime act and runs a high risk of discouraging foreign investments in the United States, particularly U.S. Treasury notes.  These provisions set very dangerous precedents.