The Biden administration appears to have green-lit a project proposed by Chinese-controlled battery company Gotion to build a factory in the U.S. after a short review.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) — an interagency taskforce overseen by the Department of the Treasury and tasked with reviewing certain foreign investments that may pose a national security threat — determined a Gotion project in the southern U.S. was not subject to further review, according to the company’s top North America executive.

‘Gotion is pleased to share the news we received from the Department of Treasury yesterday regarding a voluntary Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, CFIUS, filing that we submitted in March for a proposed plant in the southern United States,’ said Chuck Thelen, Gotion’s vice president of North American operations. 

‘Following an almost four-week review process by the committee, which is a nine panel committee using all the intelligence agencies within the United States, CFIUS determined that our proposed transaction was not subject to further review and we may proceed with the proposed transaction,’ he continued.

Thelen’s comments came during a hearing Thursday before state lawmakers in Michigan where Gotion, a subsidiary of the Hefei City, China-based Gotion High-Tech, has proposed a separate electric vehicle battery project. That factory, which Gotion is set to begin building in Big Rapids, Michigan, this year, has faced heavy scrutiny given the company’s ties to China.

Thelen mentioned the CFIUS review for Gotion’s southern U.S. plant, the exact location of which he didn’t disclose, in an effort to assuage lawmakers’ concerns about the Michigan project. He also mentioned a voluntary CFIUS review concerning the Michigan plant is ongoing.

‘Our voluntary filing for the Big Rapids area plant was submitted April 13 as I have indicated previously and we expect a similar review period and outcome,’ he said. ‘So, the CFIUS for the southern United States has already been passed.’

Later in the hearing, in a 10-9 vote, the Michigan state Senate Appropriations Committee gave the final stamp of approval for granting Gotion $175 million in direct taxpayer funding to help build the facility. The vote, which only received support from Democratic lawmakers on the panel, was immediately slammed by Republicans who argued it was a corporate handout benefiting an adversary.

Republican state Sen. Lana Theis, one of the committee members who voted against the funding, said Gotion has ‘deep ties to and is directly influenced by the Chinese Communist Party’ and added that it wasn’t inconceivable that China might weaponize the plant ‘causing untold damage and security risks.’

‘Gotion crafted, in secret, a sweetheart deal with eager government bureaucrats that threatens our state and national sovereignty and security, the environment, and public health and safety, while essentially costing the company nothing in return,’ she said in a statement.

According to its corporate bylaws, Gotion High-Tech is required to ‘carry out Party activities in accordance with the Constitution of the Communist Party of China.’

And Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., who represents the district where the Big Rapids plant would be constructed, released communications between himself and the Treasury Department over a CFIUS review he requested in February. In an April 4 letter, Treasury Assistant Secretary Jonathan Davidson reiterated the importance of CFIUS, but didn’t address Moolenaar’s concerns.

‘Treasury’s response fails to provide information on CCP investment in Michigan and reflects how the federal review process is broken,’ Moolenaar said. ‘During the 46 days it took to craft this insufficient reply, CFIUS could have conducted a review of the CCP-affiliated Gotion project in Mecosta County.’ 

‘The lack of transparency in this process is concerning and people should be able to know that a company that is trying to come into their community is being reviewed for its ties,’ he added. ‘While it is welcome that Gotion recently requested a federal review on its own, the subsidiary of a parent company that pledges allegiance to the CCP should not pass a CFIUS review to build a facility in Michigan.’

The Michigan lawmaker later added that the Michigan legislature’s decision to give funding to Gotion was a ‘historic mistake.’

When asked about the status of the ongoing CFIUS reviews and the review Gotion touted on Thursday, the Treasury Department declined to directly comment.

‘CFIUS is committed to taking all necessary actions within its authority to safeguard U.S. national security,’ a Treasury Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital. ‘Consistent with law and practice, CFIUS does not publicly comment on transactions that it may or may not be reviewing.’

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign on Friday launched multiple attacks on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential rival in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, citing multiple progressive groups and far-left MSNBC host Joy Reid’s blog in doing so.

In a press release titled, ‘The Real Ron DeSantis Playbook,’ Trump’s campaign cited data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) and the Florida Policy Institute to blast DeSantis for what it said was data showing the state continuing ‘to tumble into complete and total delinquency and destruction.’

Additionally, Trump later posted on Truth Social with a quote from Reid’s Wednesday blog, The ReidOut, which called DeSantis’ trip to Washington, D.C. to meet with lawmakers this week a ‘charm offensive,’ and ‘a massive failure.’

According to the data Trump’s campaign cited from the NLIHC, a group ‘dedicated to achieving racially and socially equitable public policy,’ Floridians making just $10 have to work 86 hours per week in order to afford a single bedroom home.

The data cited by Trump’s campaign from the Florida Policy Institute, a non-partisan, but liberal-leaning, non-profit focused on the state’s economic policies, listed Florida as one of the least affordable states in the country to live.

Each of these points, Trump’s campaign blamed on DeSantis and his leadership as Florida’s governor.

‘The real DeSantis record is one of misery and despair. He has left a wake of destruction all across Florida and people are hurting because he has spent more time playing public relations games instead of actually doing the hard-work needed to improve the lives of the people he represents,’ Trump spokesperson Stephen Cheung said in a statement.

It isn’t clear why Trump’s campaign would cite Reid’s blog in its attacks against DeSantis, as the liberal host has regularly railed against both men on her evening program. 

DeSantis has reportedly been mulling a run for the White House, but has yet to announce whether he will ultimately toss his hat into the ring and challenge Trump’s front-runner status for the GOP nomination.

Fox News Digital reached out to DeSantis’ campaign for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

After delaying its decision earlier this week, the Supreme Court on Friday ruled that full access to the abortion pill mifepristone can continue as a lawsuit works its way through the lower federal courts.

Mifepristone was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2000, and its use has been deregulated in recent years. Under President Biden, the FDA made abortion pills more widely available at retail pharmacies, including delivery by mail. 

The ruling by the Supreme Court gives a victory to the Biden administration and supporters of abortion rights, but the Supreme Court will likely be asked to revisit the issue later this year.

The case challenging the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, brought by pro-life doctors and medical groups, is the first abortion controversy to be heard by the Supreme Court since the Republican-appointed majority overturned Roe v. Wade 10 months ago and permitted more than a dozen states to effectively ban abortion outright.

In that decision, Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. said abortion policy should be a question for lawmakers to consider, not courts. 

‘It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives,’ Alito wrote.

In this case, the issue is not abortion pills directly, but whether the FDA acted appropriately in approving the drug more than 20 years ago. The Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents the pro-life plaintiffs, alleges the FDA ‘chose politics over science’ in approving the drug and acted unlawfully by removing safeguards around mifepristone, including permitting the pill to be delivered by mail.

The Biden administration and Danco Laboratories, the drug’s manufacturer, counter that mifepristone has been repeatedly found to be safe and effective by FDA’s expert review process. In over two decades since it was first approved, the drug has been used by more than 5 million women to terminate pregnancies.  

The case reached the Supreme Court after Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk issued a highly controversial ruling siding with the pro-life groups and halting FDA approval for mifepristone. His order was partially overturned by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but the appeals court preserved restrictions that made the drug available only to be dispensed up to seven weeks, not 10, and not by mail.

The Justice Department argued that allowing restrictions to mifepristone imposed by the lower courts to remain in place would cause chaos. Complicating the matter, a federal judge in Washington has ordered the FDA to preserve access to mifepristone under the current rules in response to a separate lawsuit brought by 17 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia. 

The Biden administration has said the rulings conflict and create an untenable situation for the FDA. 

In a new development, the generic abortion pill maker GenBioPro Inc. filed a lawsuit against the FDA Wednesday to keep mifepristone available on the market amid the other ongoing legal challenges. 

Mifepristone is taken with misoprostol in a two-drug regimen that first blocks hormones needed to keep an unborn baby alive and then causes cramps and contractions to expel the dead fetus from the mother’s womb. 

The drug is 97% effective in terminating early pregnancy, though approximately 3% of women who take it will ‘require surgical intervention for ongoing pregnancy, heavy bleeding, incomplete expulsion or other reasons such as patient request,’ according to the manufacturer. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, signed a bill this week officially abolishing the death penalty in the Pacific Northwest state nearly 10 years after he initiated a moratorium on capital punishment and five years after the state supreme court struck it down as ‘unconstitutional.’

‘It’s official,’ the governor wrote on Twitter Thursday. ‘The death penalty is no longer in state law. In 2014 I issued a moratorium. In 2018 the state Supreme Court deemed the death penalty unconstitutional. Now in 2023, passage of SB 5087 strikes it entirely from our statutes.’

Washington’s supreme court ruled the death penalty was arbitrary and racially-based in 2018 after a study at the University of Washington found that juries were four times as likely to sentence a Black defendant to death than a non-Black one. 

The court converted the sentences of the eight people on Washington’s death row to life in prison at the time. 

‘The death penalty is unequally applied — sometimes by where the crime took place, or the county of residence, or the available budgetary resources at any given point in time, or the race of the defendant,’ Chief Justice Mary Fairhurst wrote in the lead opinion.

FLORIDA GOV DESANTIS SIGNS BILL ALLOWING JURIES TO SENTENCE AN INMATE TO DEATH WITHOUT UNANIMOUS VOTE 

She added, ‘To the extent that race distinguishes the cases, it is clearly impermissible and unconstitutional.’ 

Defense lawyers had long challenged the death penalty on those grounds, noting the state’s worst mass murderers and serial killers, Green River killer Gary Ridgway among them, had received life terms, not death. In a 5-4 ruling in 2006, the justices rejected an argument from a death row inmate that he shouldn’t be executed because Ridgway hadn’t been executed.

Washington’s last execution took place in 2010 when Cal Brown was given a lethal injection for the brutal rape, torture and murder of 21-year-old Holly Washa in 1991.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Inslee’s office for comment. 

Neighboring Idaho is one of 27 states that still allows the death penalty and is the most recent to adopt the use of a firing squad execution amid a shortage of drugs used for lethal injections and controversy around the efficacy of lethal injections. 

Mississippi, Oklahoma, Utah and South Carolina also allow firing squads and have collectively executed three condemned prisoners by that method since 1976.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Democrat New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Friday the migrant crisis the country is facing under the Biden administration has ‘destroyed’ his city.

Adams made the comments during a panel discussion with the African American Mayors Association in Washington, D.C.

‘[The] city is being destroyed by the migrant crisis,’ Adams said during the discussion. 

Adams even appeared to take a hit at politicians from his own city, suggesting they aren’t doing much to fix the issue at hand.

‘None of my folks came to Washington, D.C., to fight for the resources, that’s going to undermine every agency in our city,’ Adams said.

Adams made similar comments Wednesday, when he said that the ‘national government has turned its back on New York City,’ adding that ‘every service in this city is going to be impacted by the asylum seeker crisis.’

In a memo from the New York City Office of Management, reported by the New York Post, the city will spend an estimated $4.2 billion on costs related to migrants and asylum seekers that would be spent through June 30, 2023, and the end of fiscal year 2024.

According to the internal city memo, Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan would reimburse the city for up to $1 billion in migrant aid, which only covers 29% of expected shelter costs.

New York City officials have applied for a FEMA grant worth $654 million, with a decision expected May 31.

North Dakota House lawmakers passed three bills Friday that would restrict transgender people’s access to bathrooms, remove sexually explicit materials from the children’s section of libraries, and expand child care assistance in the hopes of combating the state’s workforce shortage.

The trans bill and sexual materials bill passed the House and Senate with veto-proof majorities, so the bills could become law without Republican Gov. Doug Burgum’s approval.

The child care bill passed after heated debate in the House and without a veto-proof majority. It still requires approval from the Senate and governor to become law.

Transgender Bill

The legislation would limit access to bathrooms, locker rooms and shower rooms for transgender and gender-nonconforming people in several state facilities. That includes dorms and living facilities controlled by the state board of higher education, penitentiaries and correctional facilities for youths and adults.

Restrooms and shower rooms at these facilities would be designated for use exclusively for males or exclusively for females, according to the bill. Transgender or gender-nonconforming people would need to get approval from a staff member at the facility to use the restroom or shower room of their choice.

House lawmakers did not debate the bill. It passed with a 78-14 vote.

Three Republicans — Reps. Eric James Murphy of Grand Forks, David Richter of Williston, and Cynthia Schreiber-Beck of Wahpeton — defied their party and voted against the bill. In the other direction, Democratic Rep. Corey Mock, of Grand Forks, was the only person in his party to vote in support of the bill.

The American Civil Liberties Union has said that so far this year, more than 450 bills attacking the rights of transgender people have been introduced in state legislatures.

Sexual Materials Bill

Public libraries would be prohibited from keeping sexually explicit material — which is defined as being ‘patently offensive’ and lacking ‘serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors’ — in the children’s section, under this bill.

A librarian or anyone else who knowingly violates the rule could be charged with a felony, said Republican Rep. Lawrence Klemin, of Bismarck, speaking on the House floor before voting in support of the bill. The felony comes with up to five years in prison and $10,000 in fines.

Following minimal discussion, the bill passed with a 70-22 vote. All 12 Democrats voted against it, along with 10 Republicans.

Attempted book bans and restrictions at school and public libraries have surged across the country, setting a record in 2022, according to the American Library Association last month.

Child Care Bill

Following heated debate, House lawmakers passed a bill that would expand child care assistance for parents in the state.

Supporters said the bill would help the state combat its workforce shortage, whereas opponents said it would cost too much without the guarantee of bringing in more workers.

The program would cost $65.6 million — which is ‘significantly less’ than the other child care proposals lawmakers heard — and it would help thousands of children, said Republican Rep. Emily O’Brien, of Grand Forks, while speaking in support of the bill on the House floor.

Democratic Rep. Alisa Mitskog, of Wahpeton, added that New Mexico — a competing oil-producing state — has already invested in child care assistance to attract workers.

But opponents said the program would be a waste of money from the state’s general fund. ‘It’s also a very leftist, socialist idea,’ Republican Rep. Jeff Hoverson, of Minot, said.

The bill passed with a 62-29 vote, with all 12 Democrats voting in support along with 50 Republicans.

Burgum, the second-term Republican governor and a staunch supporter of child care investments, said last year that the lack of affordable child care in North Dakota contributes to workforce shortages that have hurt the state’s economy. Adequate and affordable child care would help attract and retain companies in the state, he added.