US congressman Mike Gallagher, leading select committee on China and behind TikTok bill, announces early departure

Name: Protests at US Congress after House passes bill that could potentially ban TikTok nationwide
Uploaded: 2024-03-22T22:23:56.000Z
Duration: 3 min 10 s
Description: Protests at US Congress after House passes bill that could potentially ban TikTok nationwide

Announcement comes days after the bill that Gallagher sponsored passed a House floor vote with strong bipartisan support

Congressman was one of four House Republicans to buck party leadership on impeachment of Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas

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Mike Gallagher said he will resign from Congress on April 19. Photo: Getty/TNS

Bochen Han

Published: 6:23am, 23 Mar 2024Updated: 6:38am, 23 Mar 2024

Mike Gallagher, leader of a US congressional body focused on China and sponsor of a bill that may push social media app TikTok out of the US market, announced Friday that he will leave the House of Representatives on April 19.

The announcement by the Republican representative from Wisconsin, who chairs the House Select Committee on China, comes just days after the bill that he sponsored with the committee’s leading Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi passed a House floor vote with strong bipartisan support.

“I’ve worked closely with House Republican leadership on this timeline and look forward to seeing Speaker [Mike] Johnson appoint a new chair to carry out the important mission” of the committee, he announced.

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Protests at US Congress after House passes bill that could potentially ban TikTok nationwide

Gallagher had said last month that he would not seek re-election, days after he became one of four House Republicans to buck party leadership and vote against impeaching US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.

At the time, the four-term House member said that the authors of the US Constitution had not intended elective office to be for a lifetime. But his announcement still sparked interest given his relatively young age of 39 and his rising profile on Capitol Hill.

According to Politico, Gallagher’s allies have said that he had become disenchanted with House politics after the October ouster of Kevin McCarthy as House speaker. McCarthy, a Californian Republican and Gallagher ally, chose him to lead the bipartisan House select committee on China when it was created at the beginning of the congressional session in January 2023.

As a select committee, Gallagher’s body does not have the authority to report legislation to the House floor, although it has subpoena power. Its hearings have also featured high-profile sitting and former government officials including Matt Pottinger, who was a deputy national security adviser and China-policy architect during Donald Trump’s administration.