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(NEW YORK) — Abbott and the Food and Drug Administration were alerted to a whistleblower complaint about Abbott’s Sturgis infant formula plant as far back as February 2021, ABC News has confirmed.

This complaint, filed with the U.S. Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, alleges quality control concerns at Abbott’s formula plant in Sturgis, Michigan — a year before the company’s massive recall and shutdown in February 2022 following contamination concerns, which helped exacerbate a nationwide shortage in baby formula, according to sources familiar with the matter.

OSHA received a complaint from a whistleblower on Feb. 16, 2021, and sent a copy three days later to the FDA and Abbott, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The complaint raises further questions about when both Abbott and federal health authorities first knew about quality and contamination concerns at the Sturgis plant, and why it took so long for action to be taken.

The OSHA complaint, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, alleges problems at the Sturgis plant like faulty equipment in need of repair or upgrade and inadequate safety validation for released product.

It was filed several months before similar allegations were made in another whistleblower report, which flagged contamination concerns at the Sturgis plant in October 2021, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The allegations made in that October report include “ongoing problems” with the “integrity” of seals on powdered products, that the facility had used “questionable practices” to test whether the issues had been fixed, made efforts to evade certain oversight and override quality checks, falsified records “on a regular and ongoing basis” and allowed “questionable practices” related to the cleaning of equipment to “proliferate.”

Abbott spokesperson Scott Stoffel told ABC News an internal investigation stemming from the February 2021 OSHA complaint has “not been able to confirm the allegations.”

“We believe this to be a former employee who was dismissed due to serious violations of Abbott’s food safety policies,” the company spokesperson added, saying the employee had never raised product safety concerns while with the company — and that these complaints continue “a pattern of ever-evolving, ever-escalating allegations.”

Responding to ABC News’ request for comment, an FDA spokesperson acknowledged the shifting timeline of events leading up to the FDA’s warning and Abbott’s ultimate recall but would not comment specifically on the OSHA complaint.

“We know there have been various questions about the timeline of events leading up to the FDA’s warning and Abbott’s recall of products manufactured at their Sturgis facility,” FDA spokesperson Michael Felberbaum said, adding the FDA’s “top priority right now is addressing the dire need for infant formula in the U.S. market, and our teams are working night and day to help make that happen.”

Felberbaum noted the FDA “can and must do better or be faster, and we’ve initiated a detailed after-action review so that we can make improvements to our programs, processes, and decision-making.”

ABC was first to report that the FDA is now under audit by the Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General for how it responded leading up to Abbott’s massive recall — probing whether the agency upheld its responsibilities to “safeguard the nation’s food supply” and whether FDA regulators followed proper recall protocol once a deadly bacteria was detected inside the plant.

Abbott’s Senior Vice President for U.S. Nutrition Chris Calamari has testified under oath that the company was not aware of the October whistleblower complaint until late April 2022, when it was made public, blaming the “time lag between October and February” on the FDA’s internal issues.

Stoffel, of Abbott, said there is an “open investigation” into those October allegations that “expand upon the federal OSHA allegations” from February 2021.

Neither the FDA nor Abbott mentioned being alerted to an OSHA complaint raising product safety concerns in February 2021 during their testimony in late May of this year.

This was not the first time questions had been raised about quality control at the plant. The FDA found sanitation issues in Sturgis in September 2021, saying the facility “did not maintain a building used in the manufacture, processing, packing or holding of infant formula in a clean and sanitary condition,” according to an inspection report. And by Feb. 1, the FDA had collected samples at the plant confirming the presence of cronobacter, according to an inspection report. Abbott maintains there is no conclusive evidence that its products contributed to infants’ illness or death.

Abbott, the largest manufacturer of infant formula in the country, shuttered its Michigan plant in February 2022, following contamination concerns and a large recall of several of its brands, exacerbating a nationwide shortage of infant formula.

In early June, it officially reopened its doors and restarted production after meeting the initial requirements of an agreement with the FDA on how to reopen safely.

“Abbott takes employee concerns very seriously and we foster a culture of compliance to produce the best and highest-quality products,” Stoffel said. “We empower our employees to identify and report any issues that could compromise our product safety or quality, which comes before any other considerations.”

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(NEW YORK) — Representatives of the social media app Yubo said on Tuesday that the platform is adding new safety features and updating its usage guidelines following news that the accused Robb Elementary School gunman allegedly used the app to send disturbing messages that appear to have gone unnoticed in the days leading up to the deadly shooting.

“The devastating events of 24 May in Uvalde, Texas, brought to light systemic issues in society that need to be addressed,” Yubo CEO Sacha Lazimi said in a statement Tuesday. “In the days since, we have been working to accelerate safety developments in our pipeline and further expand the scope of existing safeguards across our platform.”

Yubo representatives said that since the Uvalde shooting, they have updated the app’s risk-detection policy, enhanced its user-reporting capabilities and introduced audio-moderation technology for live streams that they say will allow for “comprehensive automatic moderation across the platform.”

ABC News previously reported that in the days and weeks before the Uvalde shooting, accused gunman Salvador Ramos appeared to have sent concerning messages — including claims about intentions of violence at school — to numerous young people he met online through the Yubo app. One user told ABC News she tried to report Ramos to Yubo — but that “regardless of how many times he was reported … he would still come back.”

The shooting, on May 24, left 19 students and two faculty members dead, making it one on of the deadliest school shootings in the nation’s history.

Representatives of Yubo also said Tuesday the platform has developed a new “combined-signals risk detection algorithm” that will help provide context around potential risks on its platform by assessing “a combination of signals including keywords, emojis, and images.”

Yubo representatives previously told ABC News that the company was “fully cooperating with law enforcement on their investigation.”

“We remain shocked and deeply saddened by this recent tragedy. Our thoughts are with the victims, their families, and all who have been impacted,” they said.

Yubo, which was launched in 2015 by a French company, was listed in 2019 by Seventeen magazine as one of the seven best dating apps for teenagers.

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(NEW YORK) — Old Navy’s 2022 Flag Tee collection is here, just in time for the Fourth of July.

The retailer recently revealed its latest version of the popular T-shirts, and this year’s lineup includes the brand’s first Spanish language design.

The new inclusive designs were co-created with the company’s Project WE artists, Manuela Guillén, Monica Ahanonu and Edward Granger. Each tee represents the artists’ unique vision of the country.

Guillén, a first-generation American artist born to Cuban and Salvadoran immigrant parents, designed the Spanish language tee. Her design includes the words “para todos,” which translates to “for everyone” in English. This phrase reflects her belief that the flag symbolizes inclusion for all who wish to call the U.S. home.

“America is for everyone, no matter what,” Guillén said in a statement. “This place is for all of us. That’s from my heart.”

This year’s Flag Tee collection also features nods to five U.S. territories in addition to the 50 states, as well as the new phrase “United States of All.”

The unique lineup includes pieces for women, men, children and pets.

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(NEW YORK) — The economic recovery from a pandemic-induced downturn has prompted a surge in worker pay, especially in some low-wage sectors like leisure and hospitality, leading to pronouncements of a shift in leverage between workers and management.

Despite a pandemic-era boom for low-wage workers, the hike in pay last year for a typical worker at the nation’s lowest-paying companies failed to keep up with the raises enjoyed by the chief executives at their firms, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Institute for Policy Studies, a left-leaning think tank.

Moreover, at more than a third of the lowest-paying companies, the pay hike last year for a typical worker fell short of inflation, effectively amounting to a pay cut, the report said.

The 30-page report — which examines the 300 U.S. corporations that provided the lowest median pay in 2020, including large corporations such as Amazon and Starbucks — found that the CEO-to-worker pay gap at those companies grew wider last year compared with the year prior.

The average gap between CEO and median worker pay among those 300 low-paying companies rose last year to 670-to-1, up from 604-to-1 in 2020, the report said. Forty-nine firms had ratios above 1,000-to-1 last year, the study showed.

“Instead of using 2021 as an opportunity to reward low-wage workers, many of whom did work to keep the economy going during the crisis, we saw gaps further widening and companies focusing on keeping their CEOs happy,” Sarah Anderson, the director of the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies and a co-author of the report, told ABC News.

Andy Jassy, the Amazon CEO, received compensation totaling $213 million last year, resulting in a pay ratio of 6,474 to 1, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson, who retired in March, received total compensation of $20.4 million last year, which amounted to 1,579 times the pay of a typical worker at the company, a SEC filing showed.

The increased wage gap between CEOs and median workers at Amazon and Starbucks last year coincided with a surge in unionization at the companies. A nationwide labor campaign at Starbucks, which began with a victory at a store in Buffalo, New York, in December, has achieved union representation at 72 stores, the National Labor Relations Board said last Tuesday.

“We’re seeing more and more workers turning to unionization and other ways to try to stand up and demand their fair share,” Anderson said.

But the increased gap between CEOs and median workers may reflect the heightened need for capable leadership during the economic crisis brought about by the pandemic, said Rachel Greszler, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

“It could’ve made sense for companies to increase compensation to keep people they had on board or to attract people to get them through difficult times,” Greszler said.

In addition to Amazon and Starbucks, the report examined major corporations such as McDonald’s, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Nike and The Home Depot, among many other companies.

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(NEW YORK) — A mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas last week — which left 19 children and two teachers dead — has prompted outcry from figures across public life.

President Joe Biden and Sen. Mitch McConnell. R-Ky., usually political opponents, both expressed horror at the shooting and McConnell okayed negotiations with Democrats on potential legislation to address the issue.

Actor and Uvalde native Matthew McConaughey described the incident as “devastating.”

Some of the nation’s most prominent chief executives have joined the chorus, such as Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon.

But many CEOs at the largest U.S. companies — which wield significant influence and can often change the direction of political debate — have remained silent on the tragedy and what should be done about it.

ABC News contacted the top 20 companies on the Fortune 500 list for comment on the recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde as well as on the larger issue of gun violence. Nearly all of the companies did not respond, except Microsoft and Walgreens Boots Alliance, which responded but declined comment.

Disney, the parent company of ABC News, also did not respond to a request for comment.

Some experts believe the business leaders have not directly addressed the recent shootings or potential gun violence solutions for fear of the potential backlash from employees, shareholders, business partners and customers, who may hold opposing views.

The companies and executives that have spoken out are predominantly those with a track record of having done so before or those with amenable stakeholders, the experts said.

“At the moment, most chief executives are deer in the headlights,” said James O’Rourke, a professor of management at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. “They see the risk of taking a position as exceeding the return.”

Speaking out in the past

A number of leading companies on the Fortune 500, including companies contacted by ABC News for this story, have spoken out or taken action on gun violence in prior years.

In September 2019, weeks after two shootings at Walmart stores, company CEO Doug McMillan issued a public memo discontinuing the sale of handguns in Alaska, the last state where the company carried the firearms, as well as some forms of ammunition. He also called on national leaders to strengthen background checks.

Walmart, one of the companies that did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News, still sells some types of guns and ammunition at many of its stores.

Also in 2019, Walmart, CVS Health, and Walgreens asked customers to no longer openly carry firearms in their stores. “We support the efforts of individuals and groups working to prevent gun violence,” CVS Health, another one of the companies contacted by ABC News, said in a statement at the time.

And Dick’s Sporting Goods, which was not one of the companies contacted by ABC News, in recent years has taken a series of steps to remove guns from its stores. In February 2018, days after a mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, the company announced that it would stop selling semi-automatic weapons similar to the one used in the incident.

“We were so disturbed and saddened, we felt we really needed to do something,” CEO Edward Stack told Good Morning America at the time. Since then, Dick’s has discontinued the sale of guns entirely at hundreds of stores as part of a multi-year reduction.

Northwell Health CEO Michael Dowling, who runs the largest healthcare provider in New York state (but not part of the Fortune 500), in an interview with ABC News condemned gun violence and called for policy solutions such as universal background checks.

Dowling acknowledged to ABC that the pro-gun control political landscape in New York makes it easier for him to speak out, and encouraged his peers to do likewise.

“I know a lot of CEOs around the country. I’ve had discussions with them,” he said. “I know many of them are nervous about going public because of the political circumstances they’re in.”

“When I ask them if they think it’s okay that there are so many mass shootings, especially with kids. They’ll say, ‘It’s horrific.’ They’ll admit that. Then I say, ‘Say something about it — be courageous.’”

Contrast with other activism

The corporate silence on gun violence in the wake of the recent mass shootings stands in stark contrast with the recent widespread exit of U.S. companies from Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, O’Rourke, the business management professor, said.

“Executives decided the reputational risk of staying in Russia is far greater than any revenue I could extract,” O’Rourke said. “In domestic issues it’s complicated because lawmaking is mostly done at the local and state level, and executives must operate across state lines. If they take a position on every issue, it is likely key stake holders will abandon them.”

One notable example is Disney, which first remained silent and then came out strongly against what many perceive to be anti-LGBTQ legislation.

In recent months, Disney sparked ire from prominent national voices and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis when the company publicly opposed the state’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay Bill,” which prohibits public school teachers from providing instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity for some of the youngest students and what opponents say is age-inappropriate material. In April, the state moved to dissolve a special tax district enjoyed by Disney. The special district is a private government run by Disney World that allows it to offer services such as zoning and fire protection.

In the wake of the Uvalde shooting, speaking out was a gamble some top companies decided to take nonetheless.

“All of us at Goldman Sachs express our deepest sorrow over the recent tragic and senseless acts of violence in America, which have resulted in the deaths of friends, neighbors, co-workers, children, and other loved ones,” Solomon, the chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, told ABC News in a statement.

Solomon met last Wednesday with New York City Mayor Eric Adams and other private sector leaders to discuss the issue, he said in the statement. “I urge our elected officials to come together to enact policy initiatives to make our communities safer,” he added.

Jassy, the Amazon CEO, expressed similar sentiment a day after the mass shooting in Uvalde last week.

“Deeply sad about the shootings in Texas yesterday and Buffalo 11 days ago. My heart breaks for those families,” Jassy tweeted. “This endless cycle is maddening…terrible pain and suffering. I can only hope that we come together as a country to find a way to stop this kind of tragic violence.”

AT&T, one of the Fortune 500 companies that did not respond to a request for comment, donated $50,000 to support the Robb School Memorial Fund, a collection of resources for the families and communities impacted by the Uvalde shooting.

Notable corporate activism has emerged in professional sports. In baseball, the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays coordinated recently with a series of social media posts that offered statements and information on gun violence

The advocacy continues a trend of rising activism among professional sports leagues, teams, and players in recent years on issues like police brutality and racial justice.

Divergent responses and possible action

The divergent response among major companies after recent mass shootings marks the latest moment of decision making for corporations as a political response embroiled the country. Similarly, large companies have remained mostly quiet in response to the leak last month of a draft Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.

Three years ago, the CEOs at 145 companies — including Airbnb and Yelp — sent a letter to members of the U.S. Senate calling for new gun safety laws that would require background checks for all gun sales.

In the days following the death of George Floyd, in May 2020, companies across corporate America put out statements in support of racial justice and made donations to advocacy organizations that fight racial inequality.

Last April, as state legislatures pursued restrictive voting laws, hundreds of companies and executives signed a letter opposing “any discriminatory legislation” that limits access to the ballot box.

Carol Bevins, a professor of business communication at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, said that most major companies will ultimately address the issue of gun violence.

“Eventually, it’ll be inevitable that companies have to respond,” she said. “You cannot not communicate.”

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(NEW YORK) — Relief for American parents and families can’t come quick enough as the nationwide baby formula shortage persists.

The crisis has continued, despite Abbott, one of the nation’s largest formula manufacturers restarting a key Michigan plant this past Saturday following a February recall and temporary shutdown. The company estimates it will take at least six to eight weeks for production to reach full capacity.

That’s time caregivers say they don’t have. Conditions have become dire enough over the past several months that parents have flocked to Facebook groups and desperately reached out for help finding formula as store shelves remain bare.

90% of formulas out of stock in some states

Tracking firm Datasembly has been recording the lack of formula products in more than 130,000 stores nationally. According to data obtained by ABC News, nine states across the U.S., including California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Rhode Island and Tennessee have topped 90% out-of-stock rates, with Arizona hitting a 94% out-of-stock rate during the week of May 22-29.

The national average out-of-stock rate has climbed to over 73%. Twenty-nine states, along with Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, have seen over 75% of baby formulas out of stock.

The federal government has been trying to fill the gaps by launching Operation Fly Formula, which was approved by President Joe Biden nearly three weeks ago on May 18. The initiative has fast-tracked the imports of millions of baby formula products and a fifth shipment from Germany with another 1.6 million formula bottles is expected to arrive in Texas on Thursday, according to the White House.

But the latest shipment will only contain Nestlé NAN SupremePro Stage 1 infant formulas, meant for healthy babies and will not include specialized formulas, which have hit families of children with allergies and premature infants especially hard.

Some formula prices have shot up as demand remains high

Mac Jaehnert lives in Washington, where Datasembly’s statistics indicate formula stock rates are hovering at 89.9% out of stock.

“I am still seeing extremely limited availability of NeoSure in shelves and online,” Jaehnert told ABC News’ Good Morning America, referring to one of Abbott’s formulas for premature babies. “We’ve seen an occasional case of NeoSure arriving at our local Walmarts and will periodically see it available online but by and large those orders end up getting canceled.”

“Now other specialty formulas are becoming extremely hard to find, like Nutramigen and Gentlease,” the father of one continued.

“On top of everything else, major retailers like Rite Aid are raising prices on formula by huge margins — so even if we can find brands in high demand, they’re charging up to $10/can more,” Jaehnert wrote via Twitter.

GMA has reached out to Rite Aid for comment and has yet to hear back.

Both Jaehnert and another parent, Kerissa Miller, are part of the Find My Formula, Tri Cities WA Facebook group where they’ve been volunteering for hours and days on end to help fellow moms and dads get baby formula.

“We recently started working with the [neonatal intensive care unit] and preemie releases from the hospital and noticed that they are not sending premature babies home with enough formula or the correct type because of the shortage,” Miller told GMA via text message. “The store shelves have not improved much. We actually started purchasing from other states that [have] better supply to support our local babies.”

“We do hope to see change soon but there has been zero change in the inventory supply in our area unfortunately, [and] our group has grown to almost 1,500 people, so we have even more babies to feed now,” she added.

For Taylor-Rey J’Vera, a mom of one in Brooklyn, New York, Abbott’s February recall impacted her family directly and this spring, she and her wife Libby decided to switch their 8-month-old’s formula twice, first in response to the recall and the second time because the switch led to a run on their substitute formula.

“After the recall, we switched over to Enfamil. And so we use a specific type of Enfamil. It’s kind of hard to find in stores so we were mostly doing online searching and purchasing through Amazon or directly through Enfamil,” J’Vera explained.

When their formula stock ran low, J’Vera said she searched in local drug stores, online and she even noticed strangers selling baby formula on the New York City subway at “crazy gouged prices.”

“We were really scared. We did start to feed [River] solids a little sooner. Like he was already starting solids, but we’ve been kind of fast-tracking the solids journey because we were and are still a little nervous about what the future holds,” J’Vera recalled.

The same week Biden authorized Operation Fly Formula, J’Vera posted a plea for help on Instagram.

J’Vera said her family was ultimately “super blessed” as their friends, family members and even exes reached out to help them find formula in places as far as Canada for baby River.

“What I’ve been doing now, we’re just giving away any extra formula, because people are still bringing it to us very nicely as a surprise. People are like, ‘Oh, yeah, I saw this. This is for you. You don’t have to pay for it. It’s fine. Just take it,'” she said.

J’Vera said any extra formula goes to those they know who still need it.

“We’re like, ‘Hey, do you want this formula?’ and we’re just trying to pay it forward,” she said.

“Things are supposed to be changing, but we can’t seem to get a clear timeline on any of the changes exactly,” she added. “We keep hearing that idea like everything is in the works … but we don’t know when any of that is going to actually hit the shelves.”

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(NEW YORK) — Paramount Pictures was hit with a lawsuit Monday over the blockbuster hit, Top Gun: Maverick.

The widow and son of Ehud Yonay, who wrote a 1983 article in California Magazine titled, “Top Guns,” about fighter pilots and the Navy’s elite Top Gun program, is suing the studio in California federal court and claiming copyright infringement. The lawsuit claims the original film credited the story but that the studio did not have the right to make this year’s blockbuster, which they say is a derivative work of the original article.

“The iconic 1986 film all started with Paramount securing exclusive motion picture rights to Ehud Yonay’s copyrighted story immediately after its publication,” according to the lawsuit filed by Shosh Yonay, his widow, and Yuval Yonay, his son. “In fact, the author’s story was duly credited on the derivative 1986 film, which is widely known to have been based on the story.”

The family also alleges that Paramount “deliberately” ignored their letter sent to recover copyright of the story through a copyright termination notice for Ehud’s initial article, “thumbing its nose at the statute.”

According to the lawsuit, Paramount acquired the copyright to Yonay’s story after it was published in 1983. In 2018, the Yonays allege they sent Paramount a notice that the copyright was terminated with an effective date of Jan. 24, 2020. They claim Paramount did not get a license to make the sequel.

The Yonays claim the film was completed after the effective termination date of Jan. 24, 2020.

“Despite the 2022 sequel clearly having derived from the story, Paramount consciously failed to secure a new license of film and ancillary rights in the copyrighted story following the Yonays’ recovery of their U.S. copyright on January 24, 2020,” the lawsuit states.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Paramount has insisted the sequel was sufficiently completed before that date.

“These claims are without merit, and we will defend ourselves vigorously,” Paramount said in a statement, which was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

Top Gun: Maverick, which stars Tom Cruise and Miles Teller, has grossed more than $500 million since it was released over Memorial Day. The Yonays are seeking declaratory and injunctive relief and unspecified damages.

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(NEW YORK) — As rising prices continue to impact many across the country, some are turning to TikTok to learn budgeting strategies.

“More and more people are interested in taking control of their finances and you obviously see some of this because of the economy right now,” ABC News Chief Business Correspondent Rebecca Jarvis said. “But you have to be careful if you’re looking at this stuff, because not every size fits every person and every budget and you also have to watch out for scams.”

Based on some of the budgeting strategies that are trending on the popular app, Jarvis said some people are able to save a few hundred extra dollars a month.

To try out some of these strategies, read about them below.

50-30-20 rule

“This is 50% of your spending goes towards your needs. 30% goes towards your wants and 20% goes into your savings,” Jarvis said. “Again, a model that can work really well for people because it creates some structure but it doesn’t necessarily work for every person. But if you’re taking home $2,000, that would basically mean $1,000 goes towards your needs. $600 goes towards your wants and then $400 goes towards your savings. What you do with that savings can really create a big difference, too.”

Cash stuffing

“What cash stuffing is — you look again at your budget, you look at every area of your spending, including where you’re going to put money towards savings and you start putting it into envelopes,” Jarvis said. “You literally cash out and put everything into envelopes each month. And then at the end of the year, you have this nice little savings cash that you can unlock and it can be really fun.”

However, Jarvis said there are risks.

“The thing you have to keep in mind is that when it’s not in a bank when it’s not in an account and it’s literally cash, you can lose that. Some people even hide it to make sure they’re not spending it,” she said. “It’s not necessarily covered by homeowners insurance. So really make sure a.) you know where you’re putting it and b.) that you’re not putting it in a place that can be taken away if someone in the worst-case scenario invades your home. And finally, keep in mind it’s not going to grow.”

Jarvis added, “If you put your money into a bank savings account with a small interest rate on it, or you put your money into the stock market, in an IRA, for example, that has the ability to grow. In the cash situation, it’s not growing but you are capping your spending.”

Other great resources

While these videos may be entertaining and useful, Jarvis warned against following advice that requires you to spend more money upfront.

Two apps that are good resources to help you get started include Digit, an automated savings app that analyzes what goes in and out of your checking account. Then, it periodically moves funds from checking to savings in amounts its algorithms believe are safe to save. Another is Qapital, which aims to help users effortlessly save small amounts of money but with a twist. It lets users set up savings rules. For example, you could set up a “guilty pleasure” rule so the app stashes money into your savings every time you buy takeout.

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(NEW YORK) — As a disturbing string of mass shootings focuses the public spotlight on gun violence, the embattled National Rifle Association appears to have suffered another year of diminished membership revenue and cuts to core programs, according to an annual financial report obtained by ABC News.

The 31-page document, distributed to members who attended last week’s annual NRA convention in Houston, shows an organization reining in spending as revenue derived from its members fell 19% between 2020 and 2021.

Brian Mittendorf, an accounting professor at Ohio State University who tracks NRA spending, says the numbers suggest the NRA appears to be at a “real risk of entering a downward spiral.”

“By cutting back on core programs and legislative spending, the risk that the organization runs is that members will suddenly realize that they are paying the same dues for fewer benefits,” Mittendorf said. “If [the NRA] loses some of those members, revenues decline further, they will have to cut even more spending — and the trend continues.”

Mired in a series of lawsuits and scandals, the NRA’s standing as one of America’s most influential lobbying groups has waned in recent years.

Revenue from membership dues has plummeted nearly 43% from a record high in 2018, according to the 2021 financial assessment, pulling in just over $97 million — down from nearly $120 million in 2020. Spending on the areas of “safety, education & training” was cut roughly in half over the past three years, the document shows.

NRA spokesperson Andrew Arulanandam cited disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic for the organization’s reduced spending in 2021, and expressed confidence that the group would rebound in the coming year.

“Despite the global pandemic and the many challenges it created over the past two years, the NRA emerged financially strong and secure,” Arulanandam told ABC News. “NRA members are eager to return to our grassroots activities, participate in firearms education and training, and engage in events and competitions. All of this bodes well for 2022 and beyond.”

Meanwhile, the organization is fighting legal battles on multiple fronts — most notably in New York, where Attorney General Tish James has sued the organization for allegedly diverting money away from its charitable mission. As a result, the group’s legal costs continue to mount.

In 2021, according to its financial records, the organization devoted nearly a quarter of its total expenditures — $52 million — to legal fees. Arulanandam said that “naturally, the association expended significant resources to defend itself from the NYAG’s lawsuit. However, the NRA is winning that fight.” A judge blocked the attorney general’s bid to dissolve the organization in March, but the lawsuit remains active.

The organization’s legislative expenses, which include lobbying and electioneering activities, plummeted by $28.6 million between 2020 and 2021 — a 57% drop, according to the records, which were first reported by The Trace.

While it’s not uncommon for political organizations to spend substantially less during an off-election year following a presidential election, the NRA’s legislative spending cuts last year suggest a gradual downsizing of its legislative and political apparatus over the last few years.

Since the landmark 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court case that allowed corporations and advocacy organizations to spend unlimited funds on elections as long as they’re independent from candidates, the NRA and its super PACs have funneled more than $140 million in independent expenditures into federal elections, according to campaign disclosure data compiled by Washington-based nonpartisan research group OpenSecrets. The organization’s federal election spending peaked in 2016, when the NRA and its committees spent $54 million in independent expenditures, including more than $30 million to support Donald Trump’s defeat of Hillary Clinton, according to campaign disclosure records.

But the NRA’s political spending began to drop during the 2018 election cycle, when it reporting just under $10 million in outside spending — significantly less than the $27 million it spent during the 2014 midterms. Then, during the 2020 presidential election cycle, the NRA’s total outside federal election spending was just over $29 million — nearly half of what it had spent in 2016.

So far in the 2022 election cycle, the NRA’s political apparatus has barely reported any independent expenditures — only $9,600, according to OpenSecrets’ analysis of Federal Election Commission data.

Supporters, however, say that the slim prospects for sweeping gun control legislation — even in the face of the recent mass shootings — suggest that the NRA’s message has become so deeply engrained among gun rights advocates that the organization no longer requires a robust political operation.

The NRA’s influence “does not come from some guy sitting on K Street,” NRA board member Phillip Journey said in reference to Washington lobbyists — but instead from its place in the hearts of American gun owners.

Journey, a Kansas judge, has nonetheless waged an aggressive and public campaign to oust Wayne LaPierre, the longtime NRA chief who oversaw the organization’s rise over the past three decades. Journey said the organization’s financial position reflects years of mismanagement — and has opened the door for other gun advocacy groups to fill the void.

“There’s blood in the water, and it comes from a self-inflicted wound,” Journey said. “NRA leadership has nobody to blame but themselves for the decisions they’ve made.”

The National Association of Gun Rights and the Gun Owners of America, two competing longtime gun-rights groups, have beefed up their operations in recent years and are gearing up for the 2022 midterm elections through their super PACs — while other gun advocacy groups like the National Shooting Sports Foundation and Safari Club International continue their active engagement in federal elections through campaign contributions.

Additional super PACs like the Gun Owners Action Fund and Hunter Nation Action — funded largely by top GOP donors such as the Ricketts family, Charles Schwab, Ken Griffith and Warren Stephens — popped up in late 2020 to promote pro-Second Amendment messaging while providing an 11th-hour boost for Republican incumbent Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue in the Georgia Senate runoffs in January 2021.

More recently, Donald Trump Jr. launched his own gun-rights group called the Second Amendment Task Force, with the aim of fighting Democratic gun control proposals and promoting Republicans in the 2022 midterm elections.

Still, compared to the NRA, all these groups have much smaller budgets and staffs. And some gun-control advocates say that could open the door for more compromise on gun control.

“The fact that in recent years it has been slashing spending on programs like safety and education while pouring tens of millions into legal fees shows exactly how deep this crisis is for the NRA,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “Smaller groups might try to fill that vacuum, but they’re no match for a gun safety movement that is bigger, stronger, and louder than ever.”

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