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(WASHINGTON) — Another major legislative win for Democrats came Thursday, when — over Republican objections of “corporate welfare” — a bipartisan group in the House passed a bill that funds the nation’s science and technology industries with billions to boost domestic production of crucial semiconductor chips and additional research and development.

The bill cleared the chamber in a 243-187 vote (with one “present” vote) despite late-hour pushes from GOP leadership against the legislation. Twenty-four Republicans joined Democrats in backing the measure, which now heads to the White House for President Joe Biden’s signature.

One lawmaker, Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., whose grandfather Irwin Jacobs founded semiconductor manufacturer Qualcomm, voted “present.”

“If you want to know who hates this bill, who lobbies against it — the Chinese Communist Party. Why? Because they know it’ll help us compete against them,” Rep. Mike McCaul of Texas, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a major advocate of the package, told reporters while criticizing fellow Republicans for opposing the bill.

Rep. Frank Dean Lucas of Oklahoma, the ranking GOP member on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, took another view.

“Regrettably, and it’s more regrettably than you can possibly image, I will not be casting my vote for [the chips bill],” he said. “This is one of those occasions that as a statesman and responsible member of Congress, I have to put aside my own pride in science committee’s work and cast the vote that represents the best interest of Americans and, particularly, the good people of the third district of Oklahoma.”

Supporters of the $280 billion proposal highlight the roughly $52 billion it provides to incentivize the creation of semiconductor facilities and therefore increase the competitiveness of the industry in the U.S. at a time when countries like China dominate the sphere.

There’s a significant shortage of these chips, which serve as the “brain” of all kinds of technology in the U.S., from phones to appliances and cars and much more.

Many House Republicans supported the bill as recently as Wednesday, before the surprise news of a deal struck between Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on an expansive spending bill focused on Democratic priorities like climate, health care and corporate taxes.

Manchin had previously said he would not support climate and tax policies in the pending spending package, citing inflation. But Wednesday’s agreement, he said, would actually reduce the government deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars.

Republicans were not pleased. Some had backed the microchip bill once they believed Manchin’s objections had killed Democrats’ spending plans. On Wednesday, shortly before Manchin publicly changed course, the Senate passed the chip bill 64-33 after more than a year of gridlock.

Club for Growth, a Washington-based economic organization, has maintained opposition to the bill — and called on House Republicans to vote no in light of the spending agreement between Manchin and Schumer, which Senate Democrats hope to approve before the August recess.

“The House GOP should kill CHIPS now that 17 Senate GOPers got played by Schumer & Manchin on reconciliation,” Club for Growth Vice President Scott T. Parkinson wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.

“I was a no last week, I was a no last night, and I’ll be the first no on the board today,” House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said on the floor Thursday, calling the measure “corporate welfare.”

The bill is also a top national security policy for the White House, with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, while briefing lawmakers earlier this month, calling its passage a “matter of urgency” and saying the country was “out of time” to act.

Biden issued a statement on the legislation shortly after it cleared the House, saying he “looks forward to signing this bill into law.”

“The CHIPS and Science Act is exactly what we need to be doing to grow our economy right now. By making more semiconductors in the United States, this bill will increase domestic manufacturing and lower costs for families. And, it will strengthen our national security by making us less dependent on foreign sources of semiconductors,” he said.

ABC News’ Molly Nagle contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Senate confirmed Steven Dettelbach as director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives earlier this month, making him only the second ATF director to win Senate approval since confirmation was required in 2006.

Dettelbach, who is a former federal prosecutor and U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, was sworn in July 19 to run ATF, the law enforcement agency in charge of enforcing the nation’s gun and explosives laws.

He sat down with “GMA3” to discuss his plans for the agency, the powers the agency has at its disposal and his thoughts on the country’s gun violence epidemic.

GMA3: Sir, thank you for being here. First time in seven years. They’ve had acting directors, but not a permanent director. Has that impacted the agency and its work in some way by not having a permanent person in place?

DETTELBACH: Well, first of all, thanks for having me. And look, there are incredible people out there all across the country, ATF folks who have been working really hard to try and combat violent crime, gun crime for all these years. And I think from my standpoint, as you say that the first Senate-confirmed director in seven years, I feel a lot of obligation. To do it is to stand up and fight for those folks.

They’re doing a great job and I am there to support and try and make sure that our state and local partners have what they need. Because you said it right, there is a big problem out there. Mass shootings are a big problem. But in addition, there’s that constant drumbeat of tragedy that goes on because of violent crime and gun violence.

GMA3: And you mentioned it because, again, the very high profile awful tragedies in these mass shootings we’ve been seeing, oftentimes we hear the ATF has helped track down the weapons or doing something with shell casings, you know, that type of forensic work. But what are you doing? Help people understand what the ATF does to prevent gun violence in this country. Maybe there’s not mass shootings, but the everyday gun violence.

DETTELBACH: Yeah, absolutely. So you’re right, there’s different parts of this and there’s some things that are newer that the public doesn’t know about; then there’s the tried-and-true things that are really important, start with that.

So I’m in New York today to sit down and meet with New York law enforcement because they are some of the leaders in the country in terms of being smart about combating gun violence and having task forces to make sure that we’re working together. The days of “this is my turf, that’s your turf” are over in law enforcement. We work together.

So that task force, that’s the new thing that you talked about, is what we call crime gun intelligence. And that can be used both to try and catch shooters and take them off the street and also to catch them before they kill again. So, as you said, to prevent.

So one of the things that we do is do what’s called a trace and that’s available free to every law enforcement. That’s like getting the birth certificate of a firearm where it started. Then I think you pointed out this thing is called NIBIN but it really is the part that comes out the back of the firearm, the injected cartridge casing. There’s now science that allows us to find out because bad guys don’t usually pick that up, right?

What we find, we can now connect that shooting to maybe some shooting that happened last week or the week before. And that really is a hot lead for law enforcement to go out and get that person before they act again.

GMA3: How do we– because so much of the gun violence we see and again, the high-profile cases are one thing, but then we see what happens in places like Chicago, here in New York [there] was a violent weekend and so many people got shot– how do you prevent that gun violence? How do you get those guns off the streets? Because that’s the violence that doesn’t always make the headlines.

DETTELBACH: Yeah, my background before I did this job, for 20 years I was a federal prosecutor and then I was a U.S. attorney. And so I will tell you that law enforcement alone cannot do this. It has to be a wholesome approach. I always compare it to a three-legged stool. You have to have great enforcement, right? Because people need to know there are dangerous people in this community that need to be caught and they need to be, we need to be protected from.

You also have to work with the entire community to do prevention work. That means giving families and kids options before they get inculcated into this violent culture that we have out there. And then the third part is reentry. So it’s the No. 1 predictor in many cases of whether you’re going to do something violent and be a criminal is whether you have done it before. We need to do a better job of making sure people aren’t recidivists. Those three things, it’s a three-legged stool because if you don’t do any one right, the stool falls.

GMA3: Director, how are you doing? Because all that sounds really hefty, it sounds like a big project. How do you do that with such– you’re the smallest division of the Justice Department, 2,500 agents. I believe D.C. has more police officers, I think by a thousand, than you do agents. You’re supposed to be doing this all over the country. Why do you have so few?

DETTELBACH: Well, look, if you ask any police chief or executive in the country, they could use [more]. And the president, by the way, has proposed a significant increase to ATF’s budget for this year. But as you said, my job, I’m in law enforcement, is to do the best with what we have now. And the way we do that is partnership, it’s with working with state and local law enforcement to be a force multiplier.

Back when I started this business as a prosecutor, you know, 30 years ago, there were eight different agencies doing the same thing in their own little task forces, in their own little units. We cannot do that anymore. We have to share intelligence and share bodies in real-time ways.

And that stuff is happening in New York. That’s why I mean, what’s happening right here in New York is actually in many ways a national model. And not everybody can do what they do in New York because crime looks different in different places. But they are doing stuff with task forces, they are doing stuff with crime gun intelligence, and we are their full partners in doing that and we have to support that.

GMA3: Let’s get your take on one last thing here, because we see the mass shootings and we often see that the shooter did buy a firearm legally, but for the most part, the violence we’re seeing day in, day out, on streets, is the problem illegally possessed guns more so than legally bought guns? How big is that issue?

DETTELBACH: It’s a huge issue. There are people that have firearms that the law clearly says, and I think almost everybody agrees, should not have firearms. So those are people who are, let’s say, convicted murderers, rapists, you know, felons, other groups of people who are laid out in law. And they are able to get firearms far too easily, and they’re using them to hurt people. A lot of people.

Not in cases that make the national news, just like you said, T.J., but in everyday tragedies that are playing out in this country and God bless the police and and federal agents who are working together to work on this because it is a 24-hour a day, seven-day a week problem, and it can get very, very hard on them and dangerous for them. So one thing I want to say is, you know, we owe them a lot.

GMA3: And we get it. From your perspective, you’re not the policy guy, you’re the enforcement guy. But our problem is not legal gun owners in this country. Would you say it’s not legally purchased guns?

DETTELBACH: Look, I am not the policy guy. I am the enforcement guy. Congress just came together in a bipartisan way to give us more tools to try and deal with this problem. I’ll use whatever– that debate is important, but my job is to take what comes out of Congress, the laws on the books, and make sure we’re doing everything we can to protect people.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Thursday pointed to robust job growth and low unemployment that should, he argued, quell growing concerns of a financial downturn after it was announced that the economy contracted for a second consecutive quarter — meeting a common but unofficial definition for a recession.

Biden opened a meeting of business leaders in Washington by insisting the economy was still strong despite the back-to-back quarters of negative growth and that some contraction was expected after strong growth last year as the country emerged from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our job market remains historically strong. Our economy created more than 9 million jobs since I came to office, in no small part because of the people on this stage. Our economy created more than 1 million jobs in the second quarter, the same period as today’s GDP report covers, and our unemployment rate is 3.6% — near a record, historic low. Secondly, households and businesses, the engines of our economy, continue to move forward,” Biden said.

“Now, there’s no doubt we expect growth to be slower than last year and the rapid clip we had. But that’s consistent with the transition to a steady, stable growth and lower inflation,” he said, acknowledging that “there’s going to be a lot of chatter today on Wall Street and among pundits about whether we are in a recession.” Republicans, too, were quick to seize on the continued declines.

“But if you look at our job market, consumer spending, business investment, we see signs of economic progress in the second quarter as well,” Biden said.

His defensive campaign comes as Republicans continue to hammer him on historically high inflation, which they linked to the slowdown.

“This is Joe Biden’s recession. Biden can lie and deflect blame all he wants, but that will not alleviate the pain Americans feel every time they fill up their gas tanks, go grocery shopping, check their retirement savings, or balance their budgets. Biden and Democrats are responsible for our shrinking economy, and they’re only trying to make it worse,” Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement.

The administration has ramped up a messaging effort to convince the public that the country has not entered a recession, noting that the U.S. has added 2.7 million jobs this year and consumer spending has continued to rise despite biting inflation, which the Federal Reserve aims to cool through interest rate hikes without setting off broader economic shockwaves.

Biden on Thursday also touted two pieces of legislation making their way through Congress that he says will relieve inflationary pressures.

During his meeting, the House passed the CHIPS and Science Act, which will provide an infusion of funds for the domestic chip manufacturing industry. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., also announced a deal on Wednesday on legislation that would lower prescription drug costs, fight climate change and implement a 15% minimum tax on corporations.

“Both of these bills are going to help the economy continue to grow, bring down inflation and make sure we aren’t giving up on all the significant progress we made in the last year,” Biden said.

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(WASHINGTON) — As former President Donald Trump continues to push false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, his political action committee has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to organizations and candidates that are pushing to tighten voting laws or spread unproven claims of election fraud, new FEC filings show.

Among the donations is a $150,000 payment to a little-known organization, Secure MI Vote, that’s spearheading a petition to clamp down on voting requirements in the state of Michigan, which Trump lost in 2020 after winning the state in 2016.

The group’s director says the donation from Trump’s Save America PAC has been a big help.

“It definitely helped us get the word out and then cover some of the expenses,” executive director Jeff Litten told ABC News. “It’s not cheap.”

The payment comes amid a flurry of big-dollar donations from Trump’s PAC to like-minded groups working to lay the groundwork for voting reform before the 2024 election.

“America needs safe and secure elections,” Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich told ABC News. “That’s why Save America is investing in organizations, causes, and candidates committed to election integrity.”

Earlier this year, before the Michigan donation, ABC News reported that Trump’s PAC gave $1 million to a right-wing nonprofit organization run by some of his close allies that has been hosting “Election Integrity Summits” around the country. At one of those summits, Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who was involved with Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election, urged attendees to recruit and create election “task forces” in their communities ahead of the upcoming midterms, to avoid a repeat of the last election.

“Imagine if we had had local task forces in these counties? What if we had citizens like you in 2020, overseeing this?” Mitchell said at the private summit, which ABC News attended by purchasing a ticket.

“We could have stopped it,” Mitchell told the crowd. “That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing here tonight.”

In Michigan, the Secure MI Vote petition looks to tighten restrictions on voter ID laws, registration requirements, and mail-in ballot procedures in a way that experts say would make it more difficult to vote. Michigan law already requires an ID to vote in elections, but the petition would eliminate a provision that allows those without IDs to vote through a sworn affidavit.

“It’s a proposal that would curtail voting access for Michiganders and is part of a larger effort to slice away voting rights from every angle,” said Jasleen Singh, the counsel for the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonprofit bipartisan public policy institute.

For months, Trump himself has zeroed in on voter ID laws as a rallying cry to spread baseless accusations of fraud in the 2020 election, despite no evidence of malfeasance.

“They want no voter ID,” Trump said to a group of students during a student summit in Tampa, Florida, on Saturday. “Could it be because they want to cheat in elections?”

According to a study from the Brennan Center, “overly burdensome” ID requirements make it more difficult to vote, especially for minority and low-income populations. The group found that as many as 11% of eligible voters “do not have the kind of ID that is required by states with strict ID requirements.”

But Jamie Roe, the spokesperson for Secure MI Vote, said the Michigan group’s petition would require state-funded IDs to be provided to “applicants with hardships.” Suggestions that the petition was going to take away voting rights were “absolutely nonsense,” Roe told ABC News.

“What right are we taking away?” Roe asked. “If you don’t have an ID or can’t afford one, we’re going to get you one.”

According to a copy of the document available on the group’s website, the petition also seeks to prohibit election officials from sending out unsolicited applications for mail-in ballots — a step officials took ahead of the 2020 presidential election that helped contribute to the highest voter turnout the state has ever seen.

“There’s a reason why there are so many different kinds of restrictions, and that’s to affect all different kinds of voters,” said Nancy Wang, executive director of the pro-voter group Voters Not Politicians. “In Michigan, the margins are so close, so if you even affect 2,000 votes, then you can turn the tide on an entire election.”

Litten says the Secure MI Vote petition has over 500,000 signatures — far beyond the 340,000 required for certification. After the group missed the June 1 deadline to get on the November ballot, Litten says they’re now ready to submit the petition to the state this Friday.

If the petition is approved, the group hopes that by next year they’ll get it before the GOP-controlled legislature, which by law has the power to adopt the petition and pass it into law without approval from the state’s Democratic governor, who has previously vetoed similar legislation.

“We think it would find a favorable response from the Michigan legislature,” Roe said during a June 1 press conference.

Beyond the $150,000 donation from Trump’s Save America PAC, Secure MI Vote’s operation is largely funded by other conservative groups that do not disclose their donors.

Virginia-based advocacy group Liberty Initiative Fund has given Secure MI Vote more than $2.4 million worth of in-kind donations for services including “petitioning,” “auditing petitions,” and “media consulting,” while the newly launched Michigan-based dark money group Michigan Guardians of Democracy has given more than $2.1 million in both monetary contributions and in-kind contributions for services like “signature contact,” according to filings.

Elsewhere, Trump’s PAC has been pouring money into supporting other organizations that spread unproven election fraud claims and support like-minded candidates.

In Pennsylvania, Save America donated $1 million apiece to two super PACs, Our American Century and American Leadership Action, that helped secure a win in the GOP Senate primary for Trump-endorsed candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz, who supported Trump’s claims of a stolen election.

In an upcoming GOP House primary in Wyoming, Save America PAC gave half a million dollars to the Wyoming Values super PAC supporting Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman against Rep. Liz Cheney, who has become a target of Trump and his allies over her role leading the House investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Throughout her campaign, Hageman has continued to spread unsubstantiated claims about the 2020 election, including during a GOP primary debate earlier this month.

Trump’s PAC has also homed in on Georgia over the last few months, funneling millions of dollars into super PACs attempting to unseat Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who testified this week in the Fulton County grand jury investigation into Trump’s actions after the 2020 election.

Get Georgia Right, a super PAC that received a $1.5 million donation from Save America back in November, has been airing political ads opposing Kemp that claim without evidence that “widespread illegal ballot harvesting continued” during the 2020 election, even though the incumbent Georgia governor “dismissed concerns about voter fraud.”

Another group, Take Back Georgia, which received more than $2.8 million from Save America PAC over the last few months, supported former Georgia Sen. David Perdue and his false claims about “rigged elections” in Perdue’s unsuccessful primary challenge against Kemp.

And even after Perdue lost the GOP primary in May, Save America contributed another $146,000 to Take Back Georgia so the group could continue its Trump-aligned efforts in the state through the general election season.

Representatives for Get Georgia Right, American Leadership Action, Our American Century, and Wyoming Values did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment. Officials with Take Back Georgia were not reachable.

ABC News’ Wil Steakin contributed to this report.

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