This addition comes amid strikes by both the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), as well as the streaming giant's crackdown on password sharing. The company implemented the sunset on password sharing outside the home in late May, sending account holders with people watching outside the household emails regarding the policy.

“A Netflix account is for use by one household,” the emails read. The streaming platform told account holders if they wanted to let someone outside the household have access, they would have to pay an extra $7.99 per month, per person. 

“Most of our revenue growth this year is from growth in volume from new paid memberships and that’s largely driven by our paid sharing rollout,” Netflix Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann said on the call, according to CNN. 

Netflix also announced changes to its U.S. pricing plans Wednesday, stating it will no longer allow “new or rejoining members” to access its “Basic,” $9.99 advertisement-free plan, effective immediately. The lowest-cost ad-free option for Netflix is now $15.49, with an extra $7.99 for each member outside the household.

The UAW leadership had asked for an opportunity to brief White House senior staff on their analysis and positions related to the negotiations with the top U.S. automakers, known as the Big Three. 

When Biden learned about that meeting in the West Wing, he asked to also talk directly with Fain and the two of them had a short meeting, a White House official said.

The union's worker contracts expire in September, and Fain has warned automakers Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis, formerly Chrysler, that the union is prepared to strike over negotiations about cost-of-living pay raises, pensions and other issues.

Meanwhile, the union said in May it won’t endorse Biden yet due to concerns over the White House’s focus on electric vehicles. The president has directed major funding towards a transition to EVs, building up manufacturing of parts and charging stations. 

Fain said at the time that UAW wants to see a “just transition” to EVs “where the workers who make the auto industry run aren’t left behind.” He noted that taxpayer money is being used to build up the electric vehicle industry.

The union has historically backed Democrats and endorsed Biden in 2020. Fain has made clear the union is not going to support former President Trump.

Other major unions have backed Biden's reelection bid already, including the AFL-CIO, the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the American Federation of Teachers, among others.

Landsman, who serves as ranking member of the Small Business Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax, and Capital Access, spoke Wednesday at The Hill’s event How New Pathways to Credit are Changing the Small Business Landscape.

“The SBA — for child care providers and a whole host of other small businesses — was really built for an economy 20, 30, or 40 years ago, not this one,” Landsman said. “We need to fundamentally update the SBA so that it is helping all of our small businesses, not just the ones that have been in the mix for some time.”

Landsman said more child care centers should fall under the small business designation. Some of his colleagues agree, introducing a bicameral and bipartisan bill earlier this year that would categorize certain nonprofit child care providers as small business concerns so that they can participate in SBA loan programs.

Mark Madrid, associate administrator of the SBA Office of Entrepreneurial Development, told The Hill’s Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack that given the variety of small businesses that exist, there will be no one-size-fits-all solution to the problems that small businesses face. 

“Those that are scaled, let's say, over a million plus in annual gross revenues … are different from those small businesses that are five employees or less that have built financial success,” Madrid said at Wednesday’s event, which was sponsored by Wells Fargo. 

“We have to take a look at what their compensating factors are … splitting our small business ecosystem into personas and understanding them and the terrains that they're in, including industry and geography.”

The real-life experiences and data presented by the event’s speakers showed there are broad challenges facing the small business sector. 

Holly Wade, the executive director of National Federation of Independent Business Inc., said that out of the 300,000 small business owners within their network, 24 percent reported hiring as their biggest challenge, with another 24 percent pointing to inflation. 

However, Diana Rios Jasso, founder and CEO of Jarabe Gourmet Pops, says her biggest challenge has been accessing capital. Though she registered her business in 2018, she wasn’t able to launch until 2021 because every bank she applied to for capital denied her request, so she had to save up the money instead.

“My partner and I saved $30,000, which meant saving 50 percent of our salary so we could start our business,” Rios Jasso recalled. “That just gave us enough to pay for a little ice cream push cart, a couple [pieces of] equipment and just supplies … it was just enough to keep the lights on.”

She and her partner continue to raise capital on their own, pushing their cart to farmers markets to sell their Mexican-style gourmet pops.

Her experience is reflected by 2023 data released by the Kauffman Foundation, showing that while the financial needs of 48 percent of white small business owners are met, that number is much lower for people of color — 16 percent for Black owners and 28 percent for Latino owners. 

Jonathan Ortmans, head of the Global Entrepreneurship Network, agreed some of that discrepancy is due to discrimination, but said it also has to do with bad or lack of credit history, something common among mothers and veterans who may not have had the opportunity to build credit. 

Landsman said he is continuing to help advance bipartisan legislation to promote earned-income tax credit and make small business interest payments tax-deductible. 

Madrid added that the SBA will continue to meet with stakeholders, and that they will provide education and technical assistance to business owners. 

“Every single day there's a new challenge for a small business owner,” Madrid said. “So it's my job to make sure that I'm in tune with them.”

The Department of Labor’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration and Wage and Hour Division have both “opened inspections” at the Mar-Jac Poultry plant in Hattiesburg in the wake of the Friday incident, according to a DOL spokesperson.

The victim has been identified as Duvan Tomas Perez, originally from Guatemala, by local authorities and a family member, according to NBC News, which noted that workers under the age of 18 are not allowed to work in poultry plants for safety reasons.

Forrest County Deputy Coroner Lisa Klem told NBC that Perez’s death was due to equipment at the plant, and that his autopsy results will be released Wednesday.

A fellow worker at the plant, on duty at the time of the incident, reportedly said he heard Perez scream for help, but that it was too late. 

“Two times he began to scream, ‘Help! Help!’” the worker said. "I knew he had died," they added.

The Hill has reached out to Mar-Jac Poultry for comment.

"Any issues identified in the investigation will be corrected immediately," Joe Colee, the manager of the facility, told NBC.

"We strive daily to work as safely as possible and are truly devastated whenever an employee is injured," Colee added.

The death is reportedly the second at the Hattiesburg Mar-Jac in less than three years.

The joint proposal from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) lays out 13 guidelines for how mergers would be reviewed. The agencies asked for public comment on the draft that will be open for 60 days. 

The background: FTC, DOJ launch joint inquiry aimed at blocking illegal mergers

“Unchecked consolidation threatens the free and fair markets upon which our economy is based,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

“These updated Merger Guidelines respond to modern market realities and will enable the Justice Department to transparently and effectively protect the American people from the damage that anticompetitive mergers cause.”

FTC Chair Lina Khan, a proponent of antitrust reform and vocal critic of the market power of tech giants, said the draft guidelines update enforcement to “reflect the realities of how firms do business in the modern economy.” 

“Informed by thousands of public comments—spanning healthcare workers, farmers, patient advocates, musicians, and entrepreneurs—these guidelines contain critical updates while ensuring fidelity to the mandate Congress has given us and the legal precedent on the books,” Khan said in a statement. 

Part of the guidelines includes a focus on “platform” companies, urging an update that would allow agencies to “examine competition between platforms, on a platform, or to displace a platform.”

Such an update focused on platforms could be critical in how the agencies take on massive tech companies. The FTC has faced recent hurdles in cases to block tech company’s acquisitions, including Microsoft’s deal to merge with Activision Blizzard and Meta’s acquisition of the virtual reality company Within. 

Appeals court denies FTC bid to temporarily halt Microsoft-Activision deal

Another proposed update would examine impacts on workers, a change from the current standards that focus on how mergers impact consumers. The agencies propose that when a merger involves “competing buyers” they examine “whether it may substantially lessen competition for workers or other sellers.”

The draft also proposes that when a merger is part of a series of multiple acquisitions, the agencies may examine the whole series.

The new guidelines are part of a joint push launched by Justice Department and FTC last year to limit mergers that could harm competition.

The Biden administration and Democratic lawmakers have sought to crack down on major corporate mergers and step up antitrust enforcement. They argue that regulators must do more to prevent mergers that could give a specific business too much power within an industry.

Most Republican lawmakers and business groups have panned the push to bolster antitrust rules, arguing that Democrats and progressive critics of major companies are overstating the harms and underrating the benefits of mergers.

The president received a split rating on his handling of jobs and unemployment, with 47 percent approving and 48 percent disapproving of it, according to a Monmouth University poll conducted July 12-17. 

The White House rolled out the Bidenomics slogan — based on its work tackling inflation, increasing jobs and keeping unemployment low — last month. Since then, the president and top officials have traveled to promote Bidenomics, and it is expected to be a major part of the reelection campaign.

Only 30 percent of respondents thought the U.S. economy is recovering better than the rest of the world’s economies since the COVID-19 pandemic, and 32 percent thought the U.S. economy is recovering worse than other countries, the survey found. 

The president often touts that the U.S. is recovering better than other nations with similar economies, and the White House has pushed out that notion as an indication that Biden’s economic policies are working.

“The president has been touting ‘Bidenomics,’ but the needle of public opinion has not really moved. Americans are just not giving him a lot of credit when it comes to the economy,” Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, said in a statement. 

The survey also found that 43 percent of respondents approved of Biden’s handling of transportation and energy infrastructure issues. Overall, 7 in 10 Democrats gave the president positive marks on his handling of top policy areas, and more than 8 in 10 Republicans gave him negative marks.

The president received a 44 percent approval rating overall, which is 3 points higher than the same polling from the last three months.

The poll was conducted with a random sample of 910 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

“I will not let a fiscal year go by without having our budget that our committee has worked hard on, and that we have worked with every member, every faction, every caucus of our conference, to get to a good place,” Arrington said Wednesday morning.

“That's all reflected in our resolution, our draft resolution, and my plan is to make sure that that resolution is marked up and passed out of committee by the end of the fiscal year,” he said. 

The current fiscal year is set to end on Sept. 30.

Arrington said more details about the scope of the plan would come “when we're ready to put it on the committee table for discussion and debate and markup.”

“But I think it's a responsible budget. It's a path to balance,” he said, “and our country desperately needs a fiscally responsible plan to and a path to balance because the current fiscal path is unsustainable, and our debt is going to implode on this country.”

His comments as efforts to release the committee’s budget blueprint seemed to be put on the backburner months ago as the bipartisan negotiations over the nation’s debt limit dominated focus on Capitol Hill.

But Arrington said on Wednesday that the budget panel has consensus on not getting through “this fiscal year without at least marking up a budget in committee and passing it."

“We’ve been working with the broader conference to get close to 218,” he added.

The vote will begin July 28 and end August 29, with the result announced the next day. More than 26,000 flight attendants are seeking wage increases in a new contract with the airline.

“Flight Attendants are ready for an agreement that respects our contributions to the success of this carrier,” Association of Professional Flight Attendants President Julie Hedrick said in a statement.

“Our contract became amendable in 2019, and American’s Flight Attendants have not received cost-of-living increases or any other quality-of-life improvements, even as they played an essential part in keeping American in the skies both during and after the pandemic,” she added.

The union has called upon federal mediators to assist in finding a compromise deal with the airline. If mediators can not make a deal, the union would be able to strike after 30 days, if the vote passes.

Flight attendants are seeking a 35-percent, one-time wage increase, a 6-percent annual raise and increased benefits.

“That a strike authorization vote is even being put before our membership should concern American Airlines and those who invest in and fly our airline,” Hedrick said.

American Airlines flies about 6,700 flights per day to more than 350 destinations worldwide, according to the company.

In May, American Airlines pilots authorized a strike, as their own union negotiates a new contract with the airline.

The labor action comes as multiple other industries have started or are considering large-scale strikes. 

Hollywood actors joined writers on picket lines last week, and the Teamsters Union is planning strike action against UPS and long-haul trucking company Yellow. United Auto Workers has also threatened a strike amid its own contract negotiations with car manufacturers.

The former first lady’s press office announced Wednesday that she’ll be selling a “limited-edition collectible celebrating Apollo 11’s successful lunar landing,” called “Man on the Moon.”

The NFTs — being sold for $75 each — mark July 20, 1969’s “giant leap for mankind,” when NASA astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in the spaceflight piloted by Michael Collins.

The digital item “includes the iconic image of the American astronaut walking on the Moon, with an embedded audio file,” according to the announcement from Trump. “Collectors will unlock surprise audio upon purchase,” a sales page said.

 “I am proud to celebrate the great achievement of these astronauts and remain inspired by American ingenuity,” Trump said in a statement about the space-inspired product.

It’s not the first time that Trump, a 53-year-old former model, has doubled as a purveyor of digital products since her husband exited the White House in 2021. Last month, Trump hawked $50 Americana-themed digital art, dubbed “The 1776 Collection,” timed to the Fourth of July. She’s also released a Christmas NFT collection, as well as an artist’s watercolor painting of her eyes, called “Melania’s Vision.”

Another NFT collection from the ex-executive mansion resident that went on sale last year highlighted “iconic moments from President Trump’s administration.”

Privately owned housing starts fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.43 million units last month, down 8 percent from the revised estimate in May at more than 1.55 million. 

Single-family starts also declined last month, falling by 7 percent from the previous month to 935,000, the data showed. Starts for buildings with five or more units was 476,000. 

Numbers picked up last month largely due to persistent lack of inventory in the existing market, which has pushed potential buyers toward new homes. Although existing sales picked up slightly in May, they were down more than 20 percent from a year ago. 

And this trend toward newly built homes continues to boost homebuilders' confidence. 

Home builder confidence in the housing market grew for the seventh straight month, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. The index reached its highest level since June 2022. 

“The lack of resale inventory means prospective home buyers who have not been priced out of the market continue to seek out new construction in greater numbers,” NAHB Chairman Alicia Huey, said in a statement alongside the data’s release. 

“At the same time, builders are troubled over rising mortgage rates approaching 7% and continue to grapple with supply-side challenges, including ongoing scarcity of electrical transformer equipment and growing concerns about lot availability.” 

Mortgage rates have grown steadily in the weeks following the Federal Reserve’s decision to hold off on another rate hike. The benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage rate averaged 6.97 percent last week, reaching its highest level since November. 

Advances in artificial intelligence technology are amplifying concerns over how campaigns spread false information, and a partisan deadlock at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) is hindering a progressive-led push to put guardrails in place. 

The FEC is facing a second request — backed by Democrats in the House and Senate — to clarify that its law on fraudulent misrepresentation applies to use of AI.

The new push comes after the commission's three Republican members defeated an initial petition led by the progressive consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Sens. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) sent the FEC’s general counsel a letter last week urging the commission to reconsider its decision, stating that it is “well within” the commission authority to issue AI regulations. 

How AI is changing the 2024 election

“As Members of Congress concerned about the ability of generative AI to significantly disrupt the integrity of our elections, we respectfully request that the FEC reconsider its decision and seek comment on whether the Commission should initiate a full rulemaking on a proposal in the Petition for Rulemaking from Public Citizen. Should you decline this request, please provide a detailed summary and justification as to why you reached that decision,” they wrote. 

The rise of AI in campaigns

Those pushing the FEC to clarify its rules to address AI say it is urgent to take action now in the lead up to the 2024 election, as the technology becomes more advanced and widespread. 

“Artificial intelligence is moving at a rapid clip," said Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president at Public Citizen. 

Pro-DeSantis group uses AI version of Trump’s voice in new ad 

Gilbert warned that AI can "create images, and audio, and video that is so real that it's very hard for the viewer to tell that it's not. And when it comes to elections, that will mean increasingly hard to unpack deepfakes which will be disseminated and could impact the election."

Some Republican presidential campaigns and super PACs are already using AI as the 2024 presidential primary heats up.

A super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) campaign used an AI-generated version of former President Trump’s voice to narrate a post he made on Truth Social. The post attacked Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R), the popular governor of a state crucial to the GOP primary.

Trump had also posted an AI-generated video targeting DeSantis after the Florida governor launched his campaign. And DeSantis’s campaign released an ad that used seemingly AI-produced images of Trump embracing Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. 

Senators grapple with response to AI after first classified briefing

Peter Loge, director of the Project on Ethics in Political Communication at George Washington University, said campaigns have always “cut and pasted” and tried to put their opponent in the “worst possible light,” but the advances in AI are making those images harder to detect and capable of being spread more widely. 

“The question is how do we answer these old questions given the new technologies, and the higher stakes on American elections. And the FEC is part of the answer, Congress is part of the answer, and political consultants and candidates have to be part of the answer,” Loge said. 

Public Citizen sent last week a second petition requesting the FEC clarify that the law against “fraudulent misrepresentation” applies to deceptive AI campaign communications. 

“This is going to have realtime consequences in 2024, and the Federal Election Commission is the agency that takes action to react to this kind of danger,” Gilbert said.

The updated request sought to address concerns raised by GOP commissioners during a June meeting when the request was shot down. Public Citizen sought to clarify why the group believes the commission has the authority to regulate deceptive AI-produced content and specific regulation it wishes to amend. 

Why GOP commissioners are pushing back

During a meeting in June, Republican FEC Commissioners Allen Dickerson, Sean Cooksey and James Trainor III voted to reject Public Citizen's first petition.

The deadlock between three GOP commissioners and three Democratic commissioners — Chairwoman Dara Lindenbaum, Shana Broussard and Ellen Weintraub — blocked it from going forward.

Dickerson said during the meeting that while he supported an FEC request to expand the commission's authority, “The only fraud we’re entitled to police is where an agent of one candidate pretends to be the agent of another, or where a person raises funds by fraudulently claiming to be acting on behalf of the campaign with which he or she is unaffiliated."

“Public Citizen directed its efforts to the wrong component of the government. Instead of coming to us, they should take this up with Congress. I wish it luck,” he added.

Even Lindenbaum, who voted in support of the petition, questioned the panel’s ability to take further action beyond hearing public comment. 

“I also share Commissioner Dickerson’s concerns about whether or not we have any jurisdiction here or the power to do it. I am skeptical that we do, but during the process I hope that we get some ... ideas that may help us or help Congress,” Lindenbaum said. 

Can the FEC crack down on AI?

Former FEC Commissioner Ann Ravel, an Obama appointee who served from 2013-17, said the commission has the power to clarify rules for AI.

Although the technology under consideration is newer, considering fraudulent misrepresentation is “not out of the scope of the commission,” she said. 

Meta releases AI tech to rival ChatGPT

Gilbert said Public Citizen is using a “straightforward regulation” to push the FEC to address the use of AI in campaigns.

"What we're talking about is a new medium that can quickly create that type of misrepresentation and the FEC should interpret their existing reg and address it," she said.

She said there are “broader” regulations she would want to see, such as requiring watermarks or clarifications to identify AI, that the FEC does not yet have the authority to put in place.

Ravel said it would have a “significant” impact if the FEC was able to take action on AI — or even attempt to do so — as a tool to influence the companies that are producing it. 

“I know there's a lot of people that think there’s good from it, but a lot of people that are really scared as well. And so having them come out with this, because of the concerns about the electoral process, I think would be a meaningful act on their part, and should be easier than getting a majority of Congress to vote for it,” Ravel said.

Although, she said, the FEC’s deadlock and apparent wait for express authority from Congress is “typical” for the agency given the 3-3 partisan split and need for four votes to take action. 

Loge also cautioned that as regulators and lawmakers weigh AI rules, they should be wary of viewing the debate in “technological extremes.” 

“This is neither the end of the world, nor is it going to lead to a utopia full of puppies and rainbows. Emerging technology tends to be a bit more complicated, and tends not to have the extreme benefits or downfalls that people hope for or fear,” he said. 

The announcement is part of an effort by the administration to expose rental housing junk fees, including application fees, which can increase the housing provider's costs to run a background or credit check on a prospective renter.

The background: Biden pledge to fix ‘unfair’ economy resonates with Americans

Additional charges and convenience fees tend to pop up for renters, including fees to pay rent online or to get trash pickup that was otherwise assumed to be included in the final price, senior administration officials said. 

The Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a white paper for members of Congress, governors, and local leaders with policy ideas to address rental housing junk fees. States like Colorado and Rhode Island have already enacted such policies, like prohibiting brokers or rental companies from accruing application fees, senior administration officials said.

President Biden has been focused on exposing junk fees across industries. Last month, the White House announced ticket companies — including Ticketmaster and SeatGeek — pledged to eliminate junk fees and roll out all-in pricing numbers for customers.

Biden convened the fifth meeting of the White House Competition Council on Wednesday at the White House to announce the new actions, which the White House said is all part of its so-called "Bidenomics" agenda.

“Bidenomics is about increasing competition, not stifling competition,” Biden said at the top of the council meeting.

“Folks are tired of being played for suckers… and it’s about basic fairness. Today, we’re taking more action,” he added.

Other actions announced Wednesday include steps to help lower food prices and promote competition in agriculture markets by ramping up enforcement measures to stop price fixing.

The Department of Agriculture launched enforcement partnerships with 32 state attorneys general from both sides of the aisle to combat price-gouging and anti-competitive practices in food and agricultural markets. The attorneys general will issue on-the-ground assessments on whether companies in the food and agricultural industry are price gouging.

Additionally, the administration will act to provide clarity about enforcement laws to prohibit anticompetitive mergers. 

The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday released its new proposed merger guidelines for public comment. The updated guidelines aim to give the public, businesses and workers clarity about how law enforcement agencies evaluate mergers based on antitrust laws.

The updated guidelines explain how mergers impact people on a daily basis and how people could benefit from mergers, like for workers to seek higher wages or for farmers to get more profit based on the markets, senior administration officials said.

“I’ve said before, capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism, its exploitation,” Biden said on Wednesday, adding that these new actions are building on momentum out of the administration to reduce costs for Americans.

Biden signed an executive order establishing the competition council two years ago with the goal of promoting competition.

Updated at 3:59 p.m.

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is nearing three months of striking and SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ guild, began a strike Friday — both attempting to gain wage increases and better working conditions for their members.

The complaints allege that NBCUniversal has blocked the sidewalk in front of its studios due to construction, preventing picketers from marching. The studio has also refused to provide barriers to create a protected sidewalk on the street while construction continues, the WGA complaint states.

The blocked sidewalk “forc[ed] picketers to patrol in busy streets with significant car traffic where two picketers have already been struck by a car,” according to the WGA complaint.

NBCUniversal denied wrongdoing in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

“We strongly believe that the company has fulfilled our legal obligations under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and we will cooperate with respect to any inquiries by the National Labor Relations Board on this issue,” the company said.

“While we understand the timing of our multi-year construction project has created challenges for demonstrators, we continue to work with public agencies to increase access. We support the unions’ rights to demonstrate safely.”

This is the first time since 1960 that both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA are striking at the same time. The action has already halted nearly all production work in the entire industry. 

Both unions are striking for higher wages, claiming that the rise of streaming shows and movies have severely reduced residual payments. 

“It came with great sadness that we came to this crossroads, but we have no choice,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said Thursday announcing the strike. “We are the victims here. We are being victimized by a very greedy entity. I am shocked by the way the people that we have been in business with are treating us.”

A House hearing on funding for transportation and housing descended into yelling and name-calling Tuesday as Republicans and Democrats went after one another over a proposal related to funding for LGBTQ projects.

The hearing featured several impassioned back-and-forths between lawmakers as Democrats leveled accusations of bigotry against Republicans for an amendment they say would strip funding for projects that would benefit LGBTQ Americans. 

In one of the hearing’s most tense moments, Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Andy Harris (R-Md.) clashed after the Republican targeted projects he claimed promote “hormone replacement therapy and gender-affirming surgery referrals” and “groomed young children.”

He also took aim at funding for “LGBTQ senior housing” and said the “answer to discrimination is not more discrimination in this.”

Pocan retorted soon after: “You know, there's a saying, ‘How do you show you're a bigot without saying you're a bigot?’ I’m just saying, there’s a saying.”

Harris called for Pocan’s words to be stricken shortly after. But the exchange didn’t stop there.

“I know it's a little warm outside, and a snowflake can melt, but this is a little bit ridiculous,” Pocan said to some laughs, before then saying he would take down his earlier comments “because I think it's self-evident.”

Harris then reiterated his request that Pocan’s words be struck, before Pocan countered, “I said I would take down my words. Perhaps his eyes are so tired from reading so many websites that his ears can't hear.”

The back and forth continued until the hearing broke into another recess, after which Pocan asked for some of his earlier comments to be taken down.

The moment came a little while after Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, asked for her words accusing conservatives of being legislative “terrorists” to be withdrawn following pushback from Harris.

DeLauro named several community projects that she said are “being summarily dismissed” under the amendment, which was ultimately adopted along partisan lines. They include, the congresswoman said, for the LGBT Center of Greater Reading in Pennsylvania, funding to expand housing for LGBTQ seniors, and the William Way LGBT Community Center in Philadelphia.

In a Tuesday statement, Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), who sought funding for the Philadelphia center, fired back at Republicans over the legislation.

“Well, just today with no notice, the Republican majority filed an amendment that out of over 3,800 projects from members of Congress, 3,800 that have been approved, they are now voting to strip funding from the only three projects that have LGBTQ in the organization's name,” Boyle said. “This is outrageous.”

During the hearing, Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) took aim at what he described as “political theater” while dismissing criticisms from Democrats.

“Appropriation also should be appropriate. This has nothing to do with discrimination over a class of citizens or people or race; it has to do with an ideology and whether or not the taxpayers should have to pay for it,” he said. 

Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) said later in the hearing that the projects in question “were all deemed, by both parties, eligible under statutory law and under the rules of the guidance that our friends in the majority presented at the beginning of the process.”

“So, someone thought that they were deserving or at least, were eligible under the law and the rules,” he said. “So these three projects were now singled out, out of 2,680 as suddenly not ones that we want to do.”

Retail sales rose 0.2% from May to June, following a revised 0.5% increase the previous month, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

The figure matched the pace of consumer inflation in June from the prior month, underscoring that shoppers are just about keeping up with pricing pressures. While the headline number of 0.2% was a bit weaker than expected, economists Tuesday focused on data that excludes volatile autos, gas, building materials and food services, which rose a solid 0.6% in June. That 0.6% figure is used to help calculate overall economic growth in the U.S., and it was a pretty strong showing in June.

Shoppers increased spending at electronic stores and furniture and home furnishings stores after a recent pullback. Online sales also had a solid increase. But sales at grocery stores, gas stations and sporting goods stores fell. At restaurants, sales eked out a tiny increase.

The uptick in sales follows an increase in May that pointed to an economy that remains resilient despite rising prices. Yet spending has been volatile this year after surging nearly 3% in January. Sales tumbled in February and March before recovering in April and May.

“While they continue to spend, the June retail sales report suggests that consumers are becoming more thoughtful with their purchases,” wrote Oren Klachkin, U.S economist at Oxford Economics. He pointed to the labor market losing some momentum, declining savings, and interest rates that have made borrowing money or using credit cards more expensive.

There is already early evidence of a pushback from consumers that is being reflected in financial reports from some of the country's biggest food producers.

Consumers, whose spending accounts for about 70% of all U.S. economic activity, have been the engine behind the economic recovery from a slowdown during the pandemic. Government relief checks, the suspension of student loan payments and super-low interest rates helped.

Demand outpaced what factories could produce and what ports and freight yards could handle, leading to shortages, delays – and skyrocketing prices.

That gave companies “abnormal power to push up prices’’ and pass higher costs along to consumers – clout they hadn’t had for decades, Simon MacAdam, senior global economist at Capital Economics, wrote last month.

That dynamic has shifted, however.

Low interest rates are long gone: The Federal Reserve began aggressively hiking rates in March 2022. The student loan moratorium – which allowed Americans to divert money that used to go to loan payments to dinners out and new furniture – ends later this year.

And the savings that Americans had stashed away at the peak of the pandemic — when they were receiving government relief checks and saving money while hunkered down at home — are vanishing. Fed researchers have reported that consumers depleted their excess’ savings in the first three months of 2023.

All of which means that consumers may no longer be willing – or able – to tolerate elevated prices as overall inflation dips.

U.S. data on prices, the most recent arriving last week, showed that consumer inflation reached its lowest point since early 2021 last month. Prices rose just 0.2% from May to June thanks to easing costs for gasoline, airline fares, used cars and groceries. Inflation is just up 3% over the last 12 months. But Americans still face surging prices for some goods and services as well, like auto insurance.

Ryan Dixon, who recently moved from Florida to a farm in Hillsboro, Tennessee, said he didn’t notice prices increasing as much in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 relief payments he was getting from the government. But as that money ran low, it became clear that he needed to find new ways to cut spending.

Now, he keeps track of the coupons in the Target and Walmart apps, scours the grocery aisles for deals on meat and buys store-brand canned goods.

“I’m not buying Del Monte and Green Giant anymore. I’m buying the Walmart brand,” he said.

There are a handful of brands he loves and won’t substitute, like his Mountain Dew sodas. But he is looking for cheaper alternates almost everywhere else.

“I never thought I would shop like my mother," Dixon said. "But if I don’t have a coupon for it, I don’t get it."

Those kinds of every day decisions are beginning to show up in the financial performance of major food producers.

Conagra Brands, which makes Slim Jim beef jerky, Duncan Hines cake mix and more, said during a fourth-quarter earnings call last week that smaller price increases have not translated to higher sales volume. That is a quick turn from the third quarter when price increases __ which topped 15% that quarter __ did not dent demand.

“It’s not a trade down within individual categories to lower-priced alternatives. It looks, optically, more like a cutting back and what I call hunkering down,” Conagra CEO Sean Connolly told analysts. “And one thing I know for sure, people aren’t eating less. So they’re making choices to manage their budget.”

PepsiCo, which makes Ryan Dixon's MountainDew, said last week that higher prices lifted the company’s revenue in the second quarter but consumer demand has faded. The company said that price increases could start to moderate in the second half of this year.

Stew Leonard Jr., president and CEO of Stew Leonard’s, a supermarket chain that operates stores in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, said that he’s told the big consumer product companies that he wouldn’t accept any more price increases because he believes customers have reached a tipping point.

“Enough is enough,” said Leonard, who said he’s being a little more flexible with beef and chicken suppliers, which are typically family owned.

The chain has been expanding its private label business to offer more affordable choices to shoppers, including ice cream, tortilla chips and potato chips.

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AP Economics Writer Wiseman reported from Washington. AP Economics Writer Chris Rugaber contributed to this story.