LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Video game voice actors and motion capture performers have voted to authorize a strike if negotiations on a new labor contract fail, setting the stage for another possible work stoppage in Hollywood.

After voting closed on Monday, the SAG-AFTRA union said 98.32% of those who cast ballots had voted in favor of authorizing a strike.

The union is scheduled to begin contract talks with gaming companies on Tuesday.

SAG-AFTRA is the same union representing film and television actors who went on strike in July, putting Hollywood in the midst of two simultaneous work stoppages for the first time in 63 years.

In May, roughly 11,500 Writers Guild of America members walked off the job. The writers union reached a preliminary labor agreement with major studios on Sunday.

The SAG-AFTRA agreement covering video game performers expired last November and has been extended on a monthly basis as the union negotiated with major video game companies.

The most pressing issues for SAG-AFTRA are higher pay, medical treatment and breaks for motion capture performers, and protection against artificial intelligence (AI).

These worries echo those brought by Hollywood writers and SAG-AFTRA members under a different contract.

“This is at an inflection point for our industry. In particular with AI, because right now there aren’t any protections,” Ashly Burch, “Horizon Zero Dawn” video game voice actor, told Reuters.

“So, there’s every possibility that someone could sign a contract and be signing away the right to their voice or their movement,” Burch added.

SAG-AFTRA is seeking wage increases for video game performers, saying their pay has not kept pace with inflation, and more protections for the motion-capture performers who wear markers or sensors on the skin or a body suit to help game makers create characters’ movements.

The union is asking for “on-camera performers to have the same five minutes per hour rest period that off-camera performers are entitles to,” SAG-AFTRA said in a statement on its website.

The union will be negotiating with large video game companies, including Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Formosa Interactive and others.

“We will continue to negotiate in good faith to reach an agreement that reflects the important contributions of SAG-AFTRA-represented performers in video games,” Audrey Cooling said Monday on behalf of the video game companies, following the strike authorization vote results.

“We have reached tentative agreements on over half of the proposals and are optimistic we can find a resolution at the bargaining.”

(Reporting by Danielle Broadway; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Michael Perry)

By Jarrett Renshaw

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – When Republican U.S. Representative Don Bacon was asked if he supports Donald Trump’s bid for the White House next year at Nebraska town hall last month, he batted away the question, saying it was too early to say, given the former president hadn’t yet secured the nomination.

Despite the non-answer, a Democratic activist with a video camera filmed the exchange, and it was quickly blasted it online with the headline Bacon “refuses to tell Nebraskans if he supports Trump.”

The attempt to tie a vulnerable Republican like Bacon is a scenario likely to be repeated in competitive districts around the country in the months to come, Democratic strategists tell Reuters. While U.S. President Joe Biden and his reelection campaign have rarely commented on Trump’s string of criminal indictments, Democrats running for state and local office across the nation are taking the opposite tactic and making the charges a key part of their campaign.

Democrats are hoping to exploit what they see as a structural weakness for Republicans in battleground states in 2024: any Republican candidate who criticizes Trump risks losing the party’s Trump-loving voter base. But they believe any Republican who doesn’t condemn Trump risks losing more moderate Republicans and independent voters they need to beat a Democrat.

“Republicans are contorting themselves to not alienate Trump supporters while appealing to the more moderate parts of their party,” said Jennifer Holdsworth, a Democratic strategist. “Democrats are going to work hard to make sure that is no longer a tenable strategy.”

While Trump’s legal woes have boosted his popularity with some Republican primary voters, many independent voters, who often decide both national and local elections, see Trump’s potential criminal conviction as a reason to vote against him, Reuters/Ipsos polling and reporting in key states like Arizona shows.

The Bacon campaign did not respond to requests for comment. Republican party officials say Democrats’ time would be better spent worrying about their own presidential candidate Joe Biden’s popularity.

“Biden’s approval ratings have been under water since his botched Afghanistan withdrawal. It’s been two years and Democrats refuse to look in the mirror,” said Emma Vaughn, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee.

‘SAME DAY FOOTAGE’

Democrats are monitoring local radio interviews, scouring news stories and hiring teams of political trackers armed with cameras to blanket Republican events, to capture the moment a candidate is asked a Trump loyalty question.

North Carolina, Arizona and Pennsylvania Democrats are currently hiring “trackers” to follow, record and post footage of Republicans at local events, according to job websites.

For $4,000 a month, a tracker will be responsible for “comprehensively tracking opponents’ schedules” and providing “same day footage” to “drive the campaign narrative,” one such job posting says.

Tracking, essentially following an opponent with the hopes they slip up or do something that can be used to influence voters, has become a ubiquitous practice in U.S. political campaigns in recent years. It will only grow in 2024, some Democrats say.

American Bridge 21st Century, the largest research, tracking, and rapid response operation in the Democratic Party, spent $84 million tracking Republican candidates and using the footage to run ads against them in their home states in 2020.

In 2024, the operation is “going to be bigger than it’s ever been,” President Pat Dennis told Reuters.

IN THE SUBURBS

Republicans in suburban districts are the most squeezed by Trump politics, making them the best areas to film, Dennis said.

“The amount of damage Trump has done to the Republican Party in the suburbs is extraordinary. So that’s sort of the pain point for them,” Dennis said.

Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination, has a national favorability rating of around 41%, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted Sept 8-14, which had a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of about 2 percentage points. That’s roughly tied with the equally unpopular Biden.

Pennsylvania Democrats are taking aim at Dave McCormick, the Republican challenger to incumbent U.S. Senator Bob Casey Jr. for remaining silent on Trump’s legal woes and hiring former Trump officials during a failed 2022 Senate run.

McCormick jumped into the senate race on Thursday after spending weeks debating whether Trump would be a drag on his campaign. He did not mention the former president during his campaign speech, but his aides say they know questions about Trump are coming.

“Dave will speak to the Trump question, which I know he will see on the trail and when he’s out in interviews for sure,” a McCormick campaign strategist said.

(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Heather Timmons and Alistair Bell)

By Danielle Broadway

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Cissy Jones isn’t asking to be paid millions of dollars to give video games their voice, but the actor, and others like her performing under a Screen Actors Guild’s video game contract say they need more money to cope with rising costs of living.

“We haven’t had a raise in five years, four years maybe, and prices have gone up. Our rates have not,” said Jones, a BAFTA winner for her voice as Delilah in the Campo Santo video game “Firewatch”. Jones is covered under a contract with video game makers negotiated by SAG-AFTRA.

Voice actors and motion capture performers in the multi-billion dollar video game industry voted overwhelmingly on Monday to authorize a strike if negotiations on a new labor contract set to begin Tuesday fail, setting the stage for another possible work stoppage in Hollywood.

SAG-AFTRA said 34,687 members cast ballots, 27.47% of eligible voters.

SAG-AFTRA is the same union representing film and television actors who went on strike in July, putting Hollywood in the midst of two simultaneous work stoppages for the first time in more than six decades.

In May, roughly 11,500 Writers Guild of America members had walked off the job. The writers union reached a preliminary labor agreement with major studios on Sunday.

The SAG-AFTRA agreement covering video game performers expired last November and has been extended on a monthly basis as the union negotiated with major video game companies.

“We all want a fair contract that reflects the important contributions of SAG-AFTRA-represented performers in an industry that delivers world-class entertainment to billions of gamers around the world,” spokesperson Audrey Cooling said in a statement issued on behalf of the companies.

AI CONCERNS

The video game industry generated total revenues of $180.3 billion in 2021 and is expected to generate revenues of $218.8 billion by 2024, according to data analytics firm Newzoo.

With video game console sales up in 2023, PlayStation maker Sony said in July it expects to sell 25 million units of PS5 consoles this year, a record for any PlayStation device.

As earnings climbed, video game company staff beyond the performers covered by SAG-AFTRA have been unionizing for the first time this year.

In July, Sega workers formed the largest multi-department video game union in the United States, after Microsoft’s video game testers formed their first U.S. labor union in January.

Along with pay, video performers represented by SAG-AFTRA say the most pressing issues being negotiated include getting Disney, Activision, EA, Epic Games and others to consult performers over the use of artificial intelligence to create voices, something some of the companies are already doing.

AI has been an issue for writers as well for striking actors covered by TV, theatrical and streaming contracts.

For video game performers, the union is also calling for more safety measures for motion capture performers, who wear markers or sensors on the skin or a body suit to help game makers create characters’ movements.

“These are folks that work in games a ton. They do stunts but also they will perform on stage as different characters, embody the characters, memorize dialogue to get timing correctly and that kind of thing,” said actor Ashly Burch, who has done motion capture as well as voice work for video games.

The union is asking for on-camera performers to have the same five minutes per hour rest period that off-camera performers are entitled to, SAG-AFTRA said in a statement on its website.

They are also asking for a set medic to be present at dangerous stunts, just as on film and television sets.

For Jones, the power of AI became evident 18 months ago when she saw that a fan had created videos on social media platform TikTok that included a scene from the animated Disney channel show she voiced “The Owl House”.

“They were using an AI version of my voice in these fan scenes,” she said.

“I panicked,” she said. “This is my only means of making money. This is the only way that I work right now. This is how I feed my children and put them through school. Someone had taken my voice without my consent.”

(Reporting by Danielle Broadway; editing by Donna Bryson and Miral Fahmy)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – As Republican U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy struggles to negotiate a deal to keep the government open, he faces a challenge from his right flank, with hardline members of his caucus threatening to oust him as their leader.

To do so, they would need to invoke what’s called the “motion to vacate.”

WHAT IS THE MOTION TO VACATE?

The motion to vacate is the House’s procedure to remove its speaker. The chamber’s current rules allow any one member, Democrat or Republican, to introduce the motion. If it is introduced as a “privileged” resolution, the House must consider it at some point, although it could be delayed with procedural votes.

If the motion to vacate comes to the House floor for a vote, it would only need a simple majority to pass. Republicans currently control the House with 221 seats to 212 Democrats, meaning if McCarthy wants to keep his speaker’s gavel he cannot afford to lose more than four votes.

WHAT IS THE BACKGROUND TO THIS RULE?

McCarthy endured a brutal 15 rounds of voting in January before being elected as speaker, during which he agreed to multiple concessions increasing the power of Republican hardliners.

One was the decision to allow just one member to put forward a motion to vacate, which meant that hardliners could threaten McCarthy’s speakership at any time.

This was a change from the rules in place under his Democratic predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, when a majority of one party needed to support a motion to vacate to bring it to the floor.

WHO HAS BEEN TALKING ABOUT FILING A MOTION TO VACATE?

Republican Representative Matt Gaetz, a hardline conservative from Florida and perpetual thorn in McCarthy’s side, has repeatedly threatened to file a motion to vacate. The speaker has been unfazed.

In a Sept. 14 closed-door meeting of House Republicans, McCarthy dared Gaetz to bring a motion to the floor.

Others including Representatives Dan Bishop and Eli Crane have also suggested they would support a motion to vacate.

HAS THE MOTION TO VACATE BEEN USED BEFORE?

The motion was first used in 1910, when then-Republican Speaker Joseph Cannon put forward the motion himself to force detractors in his own party to make a decision on whether they supported him or not, according to the House Archives. The motion failed.

Then-Republican Speaker Newt Gingrich was threatened with a motion to vacate in 1997. Although he managed to tamp down resistance and avoid an actual resolution being filed, he resigned in 1998 after disappointing results in the midterm elections that year.

Republican then-Representative Mark Meadows in 2015 filed a motion to vacate against Republican Speaker John Boehner. It did not come to a vote but Boehner resigned anyway a few months later, citing the challenges of managing a burgeoning hardline conservative faction of his party.

(Reporting by Moira Warburton; Editing by Scott Malone and Rosalba O’Brien)

By Danielle Broadway

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Cissy Jones isn’t asking to be paid millions of dollars to give video games their voice, but the actor, and others like her performing under a Screen Actors Guild’s video game contract say they need more money to cope with rising costs of living.

“We haven’t had a raise in five years, four years maybe, and prices have gone up. Our rates have not,” said Jones, a BAFTA winner for her voice as Delilah in the Campo Santo video game “Firewatch”. Jones is covered under a contract with video game makers negotiated by SAG-AFTRA.

Voice actors and motion capture performers in the multi-billion dollar video game industry voted overwhelmingly on Monday to authorize a strike if negotiations on a new labor contract set to begin Tuesday fail, setting the stage for another possible work stoppage in Hollywood.

SAG-AFTRA said 34,687 members cast ballots, 27.47% of eligible voters.

SAG-AFTRA is the same union representing film and television actors who went on strike in July, putting Hollywood in the midst of two simultaneous work stoppages for the first time in more than six decades.

In May, roughly 11,500 Writers Guild of America members had walked off the job. The writers union reached a preliminary labor agreement with major studios on Sunday.

The SAG-AFTRA agreement covering video game performers expired last November and has been extended on a monthly basis as the union negotiated with major video game companies.

“We all want a fair contract that reflects the important contributions of SAG-AFTRA-represented performers in an industry that delivers world-class entertainment to billions of gamers around the world,” spokesperson Audrey Cooling said in a statement issued on behalf of the companies.

AI CONCERNS

The video game industry generated total revenues of $180.3 billion in 2021 and is expected to generate revenues of $218.8 billion by 2024, according to data analytics firm Newzoo.

With video game console sales up in 2023, PlayStation maker Sony said in July it expects to sell 25 million units of PS5 consoles this year, a record for any PlayStation device.

As earnings climbed, video game company staff beyond the performers covered by SAG-AFTRA have been unionizing for the first time this year.

In July, Sega workers formed the largest multi-department video game union in the United States, after Microsoft’s video game testers formed their first U.S. labor union in January.

Along with pay, video performers represented by SAG-AFTRA say the most pressing issues being negotiated include getting Disney, Activision, EA, Epic Games and others to consult performers over the use of artificial intelligence to create voices, something some of the companies are already doing.

AI has been an issue for writers as well for striking actors covered by TV, theatrical and streaming contracts.

For video game performers, the union is also calling for more safety measures for motion capture performers, who wear markers or sensors on the skin or a body suit to help game makers create characters’ movements.

“These are folks that work in games a ton. They do stunts but also they will perform on stage as different characters, embody the characters, memorize dialogue to get timing correctly and that kind of thing,” said actor Ashly Burch, who has done motion capture as well as voice work for video games.

The union is asking for on-camera performers to have the same five minutes per hour rest period that off-camera performers are entitled to, SAG-AFTRA said in a statement on its website.

They are also asking for a set medic to be present at dangerous stunts, just as on film and television sets.

For Jones, the power of AI became evident 18 months ago when she saw that a fan had created videos on social media platform TikTok that included a scene from the animated Disney channel show she voiced “The Owl House”.

“They were using an AI version of my voice in these fan scenes,” she said.

“I panicked,” she said. “This is my only means of making money. This is the only way that I work right now. This is how I feed my children and put them through school. Someone had taken my voice without my consent.”

(Reporting by Danielle Broadway; editing by Donna Bryson and Miral Fahmy)

By Danielle Broadway

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Cissy Jones isn’t asking to be paid millions of dollars to give video games their voice, but the actor, and others like her performing under a Screen Actors Guild’s video game contract say they need more money to cope with rising costs of living.

“We haven’t had a raise in five years, four years maybe, and prices have gone up. Our rates have not,” said Jones, a BAFTA winner for her voice as Delilah in the Campo Santo video game “Firewatch”. Jones is covered under a contract with video game makers negotiated by SAG-AFTRA.

Voice actors and motion capture performers in the multi-billion dollar video game industry voted overwhelmingly on Monday to authorize a strike if negotiations on a new labor contract set to begin Tuesday fail, setting the stage for another possible work stoppage in Hollywood.

SAG-AFTRA said 34,687 members cast ballots, 27.47% of eligible voters.

SAG-AFTRA is the same union representing film and television actors who went on strike in July, putting Hollywood in the midst of two simultaneous work stoppages for the first time in more than six decades.

In May, roughly 11,500 Writers Guild of America members had walked off the job. The writers union reached a preliminary labor agreement with major studios on Sunday.

The SAG-AFTRA agreement covering video game performers expired last November and has been extended on a monthly basis as the union negotiated with major video game companies.

“We all want a fair contract that reflects the important contributions of SAG-AFTRA-represented performers in an industry that delivers world-class entertainment to billions of gamers around the world,” spokesperson Audrey Cooling said in a statement issued on behalf of the companies.

AI CONCERNS

The video game industry generated total revenues of $180.3 billion in 2021 and is expected to generate revenues of $218.8 billion by 2024, according to data analytics firm Newzoo.

With video game console sales up in 2023, PlayStation maker Sony said in July it expects to sell 25 million units of PS5 consoles this year, a record for any PlayStation device.

As earnings climbed, video game company staff beyond the performers covered by SAG-AFTRA have been unionizing for the first time this year.

In July, Sega workers formed the largest multi-department video game union in the United States, after Microsoft’s video game testers formed their first U.S. labor union in January.

Along with pay, video performers represented by SAG-AFTRA say the most pressing issues being negotiated include getting Disney, Activision, EA, Epic Games and others to consult performers over the use of artificial intelligence to create voices, something some of the companies are already doing.

AI has been an issue for writers as well for striking actors covered by TV, theatrical and streaming contracts.

For video game performers, the union is also calling for more safety measures for motion capture performers, who wear markers or sensors on the skin or a body suit to help game makers create characters’ movements.

“These are folks that work in games a ton. They do stunts but also they will perform on stage as different characters, embody the characters, memorize dialogue to get timing correctly and that kind of thing,” said actor Ashly Burch, who has done motion capture as well as voice work for video games.

The union is asking for on-camera performers to have the same five minutes per hour rest period that off-camera performers are entitled to, SAG-AFTRA said in a statement on its website.

They are also asking for a set medic to be present at dangerous stunts, just as on film and television sets.

For Jones, the power of AI became evident 18 months ago when she saw that a fan had created videos on social media platform TikTok that included a scene from the animated Disney channel show she voiced “The Owl House”.

“They were using an AI version of my voice in these fan scenes,” she said.

“I panicked,” she said. “This is my only means of making money. This is the only way that I work right now. This is how I feed my children and put them through school. Someone had taken my voice without my consent.”

(Reporting by Danielle Broadway; editing by Donna Bryson and Miral Fahmy)

By Patrick Wingrove

(Reuters) – The U.S. FDA is cracking down on lax testing practices by dozens of makers of healthcare products following hundreds of deaths overseas from contaminated cough syrups, a Reuters review of regulatory alerts found.

The Food and Drug Administration has reprimanded at least 28 companies this year, saying they failed to prove sufficient testing of ingredients used in over-the-counter drugs and consumer products for the toxins ethylene glycol (EG) and diethylene glycol (DEG), according to a Reuters analysis of agency import alerts and warning letters to manufacturers.

The manufacturers include U.S.-based companies and exporters from India, South Korea, Switzerland, Canada and Egypt.

The FDA has flagged more manufacturers for failing to test raw materials susceptible to EG and DEG contamination in 2023 than in the previous five years combined, the Reuters analysis found.

The FDA told Reuters it has no indication products contaminated with DEG and EG have entered the U.S. supply chain, and that the number of warning letters issued in a given period “is not a comprehensive marker of our oversight.” 

Peter Lindsay, a lawyer at Paul Hastings in Washington, D.C. who specializes in FDA regulation and compliance, said to better spot contamination the agency was now requiring manufacturers to check individual containers of ingredients rather than just sampling raw materials.

    “They’re upping the bar a little bit and trying to get industry to understand and recognize some of the risks in these areas,” he said.

Cough syrups made in India and Indonesia have been linked to deaths of more than 300 children globally. The medicines were found to contain high levels of DEG and EG, leading to acute kidney injury and death.

The poisonings have sparked criminal probes, lawsuits and a surge in regulatory scrutiny worldwide. Reuters reported earlier this month that some Indian drugmakers involved could not prove they had purchased pharmaceutical grade ingredients or tested their medicines for the toxins.

In the United States, more than 100 people, most of them children, died in the 1930s from DEG poisoning, prompting laws that greatly enhanced the FDA’s regulatory power over drugs.

Yet the agency did not establish explicit rules to test high-risk ingredients like propylene glycol (PG) and sorbitol solution for EG and DEG until May 2023.

Previous guidance from 2007 recommended certain tests be performed on glycerin, another common ingredient in over-the-counter drugs and consumer goods, to prevent distribution of DEG-contaminated products. It now requires the same scrutiny of PG and other high-risk components for DEG and EG.

IMPORT ALERTS

The FDA warning letters give manufacturers an opportunity to fix quality control problems or face penalties.

The letters sent to the 28 U.S. and foreign manufacturers threaten to block either exports or imports of their products and new drug applications from those firms if they do not improve testing practices.

Half of them also received import alerts, which prohibit at-risk products from entering the country by allowing customs officials to detain them without examination.

Eleven of the manufacturers cited by the FDA this year marketed some of their at-risk products to children, including diarrhea and pink eye medicines, toothpaste and sunscreen, according to the letters.

Florida-based Lex, a contract manufacturer of cough and cold medicines that can be used by children, was called out by the FDA on Aug. 17 for lax testing and repeated quality-control violations going back to 2004.

Lex co-owner Charlene Paz said the company has addressed the shortcomings identified by the FDA and is conducting all required tests for impurities whenever they get ingredients susceptible to EG and DEG contamination.

Fourteen foreign manufacturers that sold products susceptible to DEG and EG poisoning were placed on import alert lists for failure to prove sufficient quality control. They include South Korea’s LCC, which makes Oriox and other mouthwashes, and India-based toothpaste manufacturers Suhan Aerosol and Orchid Lifesciences.

An LCC spokesperson said the company is in the process of responding to the FDA. Suhan and Orchid said EG and DEG were not found in their products.

Four of the 14 companies were put on an import alert list for not responding to requests for records. They are Daxal Therapeutics and Skyline Herbals from India, and South Korea’s KM Pharmaceutical and Sangleaf Pharma. They could not be reached for comment.

In addition, 13 U.S. makers of consumer products like earwax removers, nasal spray, hand soap and shampoo, including Lex, were threatened with possible seizures and injunctions by the FDA.

The regulator said they had failed to conduct required contamination checks, in several cases relying on suppliers’ certificates of analysis for the purity of their ingredients, among other shortcomings.

Greg Landry, a pharmacology and toxicology expert at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences, noted the difficulty of policing every consumer product. But when the FDA becomes aware of a problem, he said, “their response is usually swift and mighty.”

(Reporting by Patrick Wingrove in New York, Rishika Sadam in Hyderabad and Joyce Lee in Seoul; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Bill Berkrot)

By Jarrett Renshaw

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – When Republican U.S. Representative Don Bacon was asked if he supports Donald Trump’s bid for the White House next year at Nebraska town hall last month, he batted away the question, saying it was too early to say, given the former president hadn’t yet secured the nomination.

Despite the non-answer, a Democratic activist with a video camera filmed the exchange, and it was quickly blasted it online with the headline Bacon “refuses to tell Nebraskans if he supports Trump.”

The attempt to tie a vulnerable Republican like Bacon is a scenario likely to be repeated in competitive districts around the country in the months to come, Democratic strategists tell Reuters. While U.S. President Joe Biden and his reelection campaign have rarely commented on Trump’s string of criminal indictments, Democrats running for state and local office across the nation are taking the opposite tactic and making the charges a key part of their campaign.

Democrats are hoping to exploit what they see as a structural weakness for Republicans in battleground states in 2024: any Republican candidate who criticizes Trump risks losing the party’s Trump-loving voter base. But they believe any Republican who doesn’t condemn Trump risks losing more moderate Republicans and independent voters they need to beat a Democrat.

“Republicans are contorting themselves to not alienate Trump supporters while appealing to the more moderate parts of their party,” said Jennifer Holdsworth, a Democratic strategist. “Democrats are going to work hard to make sure that is no longer a tenable strategy.”

While Trump’s legal woes have boosted his popularity with some Republican primary voters, many independent voters, who often decide both national and local elections, see Trump’s potential criminal conviction as a reason to vote against him, Reuters/Ipsos polling and reporting in key states like Arizona shows.

The Bacon campaign did not respond to requests for comment. Republican party officials say Democrats’ time would be better spent worrying about their own presidential candidate Joe Biden’s popularity.

“Biden’s approval ratings have been under water since his botched Afghanistan withdrawal. It’s been two years and Democrats refuse to look in the mirror,” said Emma Vaughn, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee.

‘SAME DAY FOOTAGE’

Democrats are monitoring local radio interviews, scouring news stories and hiring teams of political trackers armed with cameras to blanket Republican events, to capture the moment a candidate is asked a Trump loyalty question.

North Carolina, Arizona and Pennsylvania Democrats are currently hiring “trackers” to follow, record and post footage of Republicans at local events, according to job websites.

For $4,000 a month, a tracker will be responsible for “comprehensively tracking opponents’ schedules” and providing “same day footage” to “drive the campaign narrative,” one such job posting says.

Tracking, essentially following an opponent with the hopes they slip up or do something that can be used to influence voters, has become a ubiquitous practice in U.S. political campaigns in recent years. It will only grow in 2024, some Democrats say.

American Bridge 21st Century, the largest research, tracking, and rapid response operation in the Democratic Party, spent $84 million tracking Republican candidates and using the footage to run ads against them in their home states in 2020.

In 2024, the operation is “going to be bigger than it’s ever been,” President Pat Dennis told Reuters.

IN THE SUBURBS

Republicans in suburban districts are the most squeezed by Trump politics, making them the best areas to film, Dennis said.

“The amount of damage Trump has done to the Republican Party in the suburbs is extraordinary. So that’s sort of the pain point for them,” Dennis said.

Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination, has a national favorability rating of around 41%, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted Sept 8-14, which had a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of about 2 percentage points. That’s roughly tied with the equally unpopular Biden.

Pennsylvania Democrats are taking aim at Dave McCormick, the Republican challenger to incumbent U.S. Senator Bob Casey Jr. for remaining silent on Trump’s legal woes and hiring former Trump officials during a failed 2022 Senate run.

McCormick jumped into the senate race on Thursday after spending weeks debating whether Trump would be a drag on his campaign. He did not mention the former president during his campaign speech, but his aides say they know questions about Trump are coming.

“Dave will speak to the Trump question, which I know he will see on the trail and when he’s out in interviews for sure,” a McCormick campaign strategist said.

(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Heather Timmons and Alistair Bell)

By David Morgan and Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House and Senate on Tuesday plan to take sharply divergent paths in a high-stakes spending battle, with just five days remaining until a deadline that could force wide swaths of the government to shut down for the fourth time in a decade.

The Democratic-controlled Senate plans to vote on a stopgap funding bill with bipartisan support that would keep the federal government operating after current money runs out at midnight on Saturday (0400 GMT Sunday), giving negotiators more time to agree on full-year spending numbers.

Meanwhile Republican House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy, aiming to hold off a rebellion by hardline members of his own caucus, will push ahead with four full-year spending bills that reflect conservative priorities and stand no chance of becoming law.

Hundreds of thousands of federal workers will be furloughed and a wide range of services, from economic data releases to nutrition benefits, will be suspended beginning on Sunday if the two sides do not reach agreement. In Washington, the National Zoo says it would have to curtail its farewell party for three giant pandas before they return to China.

Congress has shut down the government 14 times since 1981, though most of those funding gaps have lasted only a day or two. Though disruptive, they have not had a significant impact on the world’s largest economy.

But Moody’s warned on Monday that a shutdown this time would have negative implications for the U.S. government’s AAA credit rating, as it would highlight how political polarization is worsening the country’s fiscal standing.

Democratic President Joe Biden and McCarthy had aimed to head off a shutdown this year when they agreed in May, at the end of a standoff over the federal debt ceiling, to discretionary spending of $1.59 trillion for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

Lawmakers on McCarthy’s right flank have since rejected that number, demanding $120 billion in cuts, even as more moderate members of their party including top Senate Republicans voiced support for the agreed-on plan.

That only accounts for a fraction of the total U.S. budget, which will come to $6.4 trillion for this fiscal year. Lawmakers are not considering cuts to popular benefit programs like Social Security and Medicare, which are projected to grow dramatically as the population ages.

Republicans control the House by a narrow 221-212 majority and have few votes to spare, particularly since some Republican hardliners have threatened to move to oust McCarthy from his leadership role if he relies on Democratic votes to pass legislation.

‘PAYING THE PRICE’

Biden himself has called on House Republicans to honor McCarthy’s deal.

“Just a few months ago the speaker of the House and I agreed to spending levels of the government,” Biden said. “Now a small group of extreme House Republicans, they don’t want to live up to that deal, and everyone in America could be faced with paying the price for it.”

Despite the looming shutdown deadline, the House will turn its attention first to the four full-year bills, which even if they pass would not fund the full government or prevent a shutdown. Success is not guaranteed: Republican hardliners blocked action on spending bills last week and some have said they would try to do so again.

If McCarthy surmounts that first obstacle, debate could consume most of the week, leaving little time to hammer out a stopgap bill before Sunday.

Republican Representative Ralph Norman, a member of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, said on Monday he was “100%” certain that Congress would not be able to keep the government open.

McCarthy said he was more optimistic. “I’m working everything we can to make sure this doesn’t happen,” he told reporters on Monday. “I always like the ball at the last second.”

How that might play out is unclear at this point. If the Senate passes a stopgap funding bill, McCarthy could allow a vote in the House, where it could pass with support from Democrats and more pragmatic Republicans.

But that could prompt Republican hardliners to act on their threat to depose McCarthy, plunging the chamber further into chaos.

Former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, has been cheering on the shutdown talk, saying on his Truth social media site, “UNLESS YOU GET EVERYTHING, SHUT IT DOWN!”

(Reporting by David Morgan and Andy Sullivan, additional reporting by Moira Warburton and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Scott Malone and Bill Berkrot)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Joe Biden and Donald Trump will speak to striking auto workers in rare back-to-back events in Michigan this week, highlighting how important unions are to the 2024 presidential election, even though they represent a tiny fraction of U.S. workers.

Biden will join striking United Auto Workers (UAW) members on a picket line in Wayne County, Michigan at 12 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT) on Tuesday, which labor historians said is the most support shown for striking workers by a sitting president in at least 100 years.

Republican rival Donald Trump, the front-runner to be his party’s 2024 presidential candidate, will address hundreds of workers at a gathering at an auto supplier in a Detroit suburb on Wednesday.

Biden said on Monday that the UAW gave up “an incredible amount” when the auto industry was struggling and the union “saved the automobile industry,” an apparent reference to a 2009 government bailout that included wage cuts.

“Now that the industry is roaring back they should participate in the benefits,” he said.

UAW President Shawn Fain is expected to join Biden at the picket line on Tuesday, said a source familiar with the matter. The union is not involved with Trump’s visit and Fain does not plan to attend that event, the source added.

To date, the UAW has declined to support either 2024 presidential candidate, making it the only major union not to back Biden.

“We are a long way from the general election, but it sure feels like the general election,” said Dave Urban, a Republican strategist who previously worked for Trump.

UAW workers this month began targeted strikes against General Motors, Ford and Chrysler parent Stellantis seeking wage rises to match CEO pay jumps, shorter work weeks and job security as the industry moves toward electric vehicles.

The White House is having discussions about ways to blunt any economic fallout from a full walkout.

Only 10.1% of U.S. workers were union members in 2022, but they have outsized political influence because the states where they are strong often swing from Democrat to Republican, and they have grassroots networks that are powerful.

Striking auto workers say they would like to see more support from elected officials as they push to get companies to share more of the profits.

“There definitely needs to be more of a light shined on the auto industry,” said Brandon Cappelletty, 25, who was on a picket line in Toledo, Ohio last week. “The politicians need to back us a lot more.”

RUST BELT IN THE BALANCE?

The auto industry and its labor movement are deeply intertwined with Michigan’s politics and that of other Midwestern U.S. states.

Biden has made support for unions a cornerstone of his economic policies. As president, he has emphasized reinvestment in U.S. manufacturing, union jobs and workers’ rights even though he is struggling to impress voters with his economic stewardship as he campaigns for a second term.

Trump, who sometimes fought with unions as a real estate developer, slashed corporate taxes as president and generally backed the interests of businesses over labor, experts said.

The Trump administration’s stance on labor issues was “unconditionally anti-union,” said Robert Bruno, professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois.

In 2016, Trump earned a level of support from union members that no Republican had reached since Ronald Reagan, helping him narrowly capture critical states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Biden rebounded with unions in 2020, with a roughly 16-percentage-point advantage as he reclaimed those so-called rust belt states, which have been scarred by decades of job losses as companies moved jobs to lower-cost, often non-union locations. He won Michigan in 2020 by some 154,000 votes.

Republicans believe Biden’s push to electrify America’s vehicle fleet, by pumping billions of dollars of tax rebates into EV manufacturing, is unpopular with auto workers.

“Bidenflation and Biden’s insane EV mandate have put the state of Michigan and the critical consitutecy of working middle class voters in Michigan in play,” said Jason Miller, a senior Trump adviser.

In Michigan, Trump will criticize Biden’s economic policies and incentives promoting EVs and say he would do a better job of protecting blue-collar workers if elected to a second term, Miller added.

Trump is banking on driving a wedge between union members and their leaders, who criticized the former president’s labor policies during his term, labor experts said.

Karen Finney, a Democratic strategist, said it was critical for Biden to make the trip to Michigan to ensure that Trump does not rewrite history.

“Biden is saying that we are not just going to let you go there and lie to people and try to change the conversation,” Finney said.

Biden’s Michigan visit represents the most support a sitting president has shown striking workers since Theodore Roosevelt invited striking coal workers to the White House in 1902, historians said.

As a presidential candidate, then former Vice President Biden joined multiple picket lines, including a UAW picket in Kansas City in 2019.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose, Jarrett Renshaw and Nathan Layne; additional reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Heather Timmons and Jamie Freed)