Bijan “BJ” Koohmaraie has had a hand in a number of the largest laws prioritized by Home Republicans on this Congress — together with the H.R. 1 vitality invoice and the H.R. 2 border invoice. However the former Vitality and Commerce Committee staffer takes probably the most satisfaction in a invoice that received uncommon bipartisan assist.
“My baby would be the TikTok bill,” Koohmaraie informed The Hill, referring to laws that might ban the app if its Chinese language proprietor, ByteDance, doesn’t promote it. President Biden signed the laws into regulation earlier this 12 months.
A March 2023 listening to with the TikTok CEO put gas behind the hassle. Whereas his earlier work with the Vitality and Commerce Committee restricted him to the only panel’s jurisdiction, engaged on the TikTok invoice below Home Majority Chief Steve Scalise (R-La.) allowed him to drag collectively not solely that committee, but in addition the Home Monetary Providers Committee, Overseas Affairs Committee, and the Choose Committee on the Chinese language Communist Occasion to arrange a framework and course of.
“We knew this was always going to have to be bipartisan, but we first focused on making sure we got our conference kind of aligned and behind a unified approach,” Koohmaraie stated.
Work with Democrats and the Biden administration got here later within the fall — together with with the Division of Justice to verify it might defend the laws in court docket.
Koohmaraie caught the bug for the Capitol Hill as an undergraduate intern within the workplace of his hometown congressman, Rep. Adrian Smith (R-Neb.), and even after regulation faculty it by no means went away.
“There’s just something about the Hill that really pulled me in,” Koohmaraie stated. “It’s chaotic. I really enjoyed the pace. I really enjoy long, grinding nights — and you know, there’s no shortage of that on the Hill. It’s really like the center of where you can make a difference in the policy realm.”
