Ask HN: Is it fair to bundle TikTok ban with other aid bill

[ShawFei]

I'm not familiar with the US's government, but it looks like legal, but is it fair? Is it procedural justice?

[throwaway4good]

I think you are mixing the terms fairness and justice with what goes on in a political / legislative process. This is mostly a battle between the interests of Meta and Google vs. ByteDance.

[ShawFei]

I know there must some supporters behind a bill, but I think at least you should play the game fair?

[nullindividual]

They’re three separate bills, Israel aid, Ukraine aid, and Tiktok. You can find them on congress.gov.

Each congress critter voted on each bill separately.

[ShawFei]

but why medias said it's a "package" and "tied with"/"bundled with" foreign aid bill?

[verdverm]

They started as separate bills in the House with a final step of merging them into one before sending off to the Senate, as I understand it

Even if they were technically separate at one point, the discussion leading up to and throughout was about them as one. The Senate passed a bigger bill that also included border funding months ago. That was rejected by the House without consideration or negotiation, because reasons...

Regarding "fairness" of bundling, I agree with others this is the wrong framing. Democracy and politics is about giving and taking to get something not perfect through a messy system full of competing interests.