The U.S. House Rules Committee holds a hearing on H.R. 1 – The Lower Energy Costs Act at 3:00 p.m. ET on March 27. ...

Phillip Washington, who was President Joe Biden’s choice to lead the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), withdrew his name from consideration over the weekend amid questions from lawmakers about his level of aviation experience going into the job. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg referenced Washington’s decision to withdraw his name in a message posted on Twitter on Saturday evening: “The FAA needs a confirmed Administrator, and Phil Washington’s transportation & military experience made him an excellent nominee. The partisan attacks and procedural obstruction he has faced are undeserved, but I respect his decision to withdraw and am grateful for his service.”...

Former President Donald Trump over the weekend responded to speculation that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis could be a potential 2024 running mate amid an escalating war of words between the two. During a Newsmax interview on Saturday, the 45th president was asked about whether he considered the Republican governor to be his vice president. “No, I never thought of it,” Trump said in response. “We have a lot of great people in the Republican Party … it would be a very unlikely alliance.” “Look, I appointed him. He was failing badly in the polls … and I endorsed him,” Trump said as he reiterated his comment that his backing of DeSantis enabled him to become Florida’s governor in 2018. “He went from a very small number to a very high number,” he added....

Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake said she is “seriously” considering running for Senate in Arizona after seeing the polling results. When commentator Charlie Kirk asked about a possible Senate run, Lake said she is still focusing on her election-related lawsuit. Last week, the Arizona state Supreme Court took up portions of her suit. “I don’t know politically what I will do next. I never had any desire to get into politics, and the people of Arizona recruited me to run for governor, and we have led an amazing movement of We The People,” Lake said in response. “It is something I will seriously consider,” added Lake, a former local news anchor President Donald Trump endorsed. “I’ve looked at a lot of polling, probably five polls showing that I can not only win handily in a primary, but I can go on to win the entire race for Senate.”...

President Joe Biden hosts the Small Business Association’s (SBA) Women’s Business Summit at the White House at 2:30 p.m. ET on March 27. ...

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre holds a press briefing at 1:00 p.m. ET on March 27. ...

The U.S. government has released the licensing agreement it hammered out with vaccine manufacturer Moderna but has refused to confirm many payment details. Moderna agreed to pay the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to license spike protein technology the company included in its COVID-19 vaccine, the contract confirms. Moderna resisted for years acknowledging the work by government researchers on the spike protein but relented in late 2021 and announced the contract during an earnings call on Feb. 23. Moderna said it provided a “catch-up payment” of $400 million to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is part of the NIH, under the agreement....

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) announced Sunday that he won’t run for the Senate seat vacated by retiring Senator Dianne Feinstein. Instead, he will endorse fellow Rep. Barbara Lee and will co-chair her campaign to be California’s new senator. Khanna made his announcement on CNN’s “State of the Union,” saying that the House was “the best place” for him to advance progressive policy. “I have concluded that despite a lot of enthusiasm from Bernie [Sanders’] folks, the best place, the most exciting place, action place, fit place for me to serve as a progressive is in the House of Representatives,” Khanna said....

WACO, Texas—Controversy seems to follow former President Donald Trump. Sometimes he invites it but this time it was unfairly foisted upon him, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick insisted at Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign kickoff rally. On March 25, after thousands of people stood for hours in 78-degree heat at the Waco Regional Airport, Patrick bounded up the stairs and took center stage in advance of Trump’s appearance. Patrick dispelled speculation about the motivation behind Trump’s decision to launch his third presidential campaign at this time and place. Using one of Trump’s stock phrases, Patrick dismissed as “fake news” any connection to an infamous tragedy near Waco....

New York is reportedly close to enacting the nation’s first legislative ban on gas stoves for most new construction, including single-family homes and commercial buildings. Amid a statewide uproar over the plan, the Democrat-led state legislature is set to advance the move as part of Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul’s $227 billion budget blueprint, which heavily focuses on phasing out the use of fossil fuels with a commitment to create a “cleaner, healthier environment for future generations.” If passed as is, the measure would prohibit the installation of “fossil fuel equipment” and building systems in the construction of new one-family and smaller multi-family homes, beginning on Dec. 31, 2025. The same prohibition would apply to new larger multi-family homes and commercial buildings starting on Dec. 31, 2028....

WASHINGTON—House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy said on Sunday lawmakers will move forward with legislation to address national security worries about TikTok, alleging the Chinese communist regime had access to the short video app’s user data. In the United States, there are growing calls to ban TikTok, owned by China-based company ByteDance, or to pass bipartisan legislation to give President Joe Biden’s administration legal authority to seek a ban. Devices owned by the U.S. government were recently banned from having the app installed. “The House will be moving forward with legislation to protect Americans from the technological tentacles of the Chinese Communist Party,” McCarthy said on Twitter....

Georgetown University professor Jonathan Turley revealed why Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against former President Donald Trump is now “falling apart” after Trump last week announced he may be indicted amid a flurry of grand jury activity. “The problem is that Bragg has long been searching for a crime in the criminal code to fulfill his pitch during his campaign that he was the man for voters who wanted to bag Trump,” Turley wrote in an opinion article for the New York Post published late last week. Bragg has been investigating whether Trump violated campaign finance laws in 2016 when a so-called hush money payment to adult performer Stormy Daniels was allegedly misclassified....

President Joe Biden on Sunday issued a major disaster declaration in Mississippi after tornadoes left dozens of people dead, according to a White House statement. Biden early on Sunday “declared that a major disaster exists in the State of Mississippi and ordered Federal aid to supplement State, tribal, and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by severe storms, straight-line winds, and tornadoes from March 24 to March 25, 2023.” Federal disaster funding will be made available for affected individuals in Carroll, Humphreys, Monroe, and Sharkey counties, the White House said. Assistance can be used for temporary housing, home repairs, low-interest loans to cover property losses, and other programs, it said....

President Joe Biden early Sunday issued an emergency declaration for Mississippi, making federal funding available to Carroll, Humphreys, Monroe, and Sharkey counties, the areas hardest hit Friday night by a deadly tornado that ripped through the Mississippi Delta, one of the poorest regions of the United States. At least 25 people were killed and dozens of others were injured in Mississippi as the massive storm ripped through several towns on its hour-long path. One man was killed after his trailer home flipped several times in Alabama. Search and recovery crews on Sunday resumed the daunting task of digging through the debris of flattened and battered homes, commercial buildings and municipal offices after hundreds of people were displaced....

A growing chorus of interest groups is calling for a pause in offshore wind activities to allow further assessment of the sector’s impacts on the marine ecosystem. Congressman Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, a Republican, introduced a congressional resolution on March 21 to halt work on east-coast offshore wind projects until investigations into its possible impact on marine mammals can be done. Fishing groups and local residents have filed five lawsuits against proposed or under-construction wind projects along the Atlantic seaboard. A leading body for the U.S. Pacific fishing industry is urging the federal government to call off its proposed auction for offshore wind off the Oregon coast....

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis won the state’s 2018 Republican gubernatorial primary and then edged a heavily favored Democrat candidate in the general election because of Donald Trump’s endorsement, the former president proclaimed at his March 25 campaign rally in Waco, Texas. During a week where he has faced a possible indictment from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg over a hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels, Trump has increased his focus on DeSantis, who has yet to enter the 2024 presidential race but is widely considered as Trump’s most serious potential contender. Reinforcing previous comments, Trump at the rally said that before DeSantis was governor, “Florida was tremendously successful under Rick Scott” and that Charlie Crist’s tenure as governor was a success....

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been released home after completing inpatient physical therapy at a rehabilitation facility, following a concussion he suffered earlier this month. The 81-year-old senator had a fall at a private dinner for the Senate Leadership Fund, a Republican super PAC, on March 8 at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington. After the fall, McConnell was admitted to hospital where he was treated for a concussion and a minor rib fracture. He was discharged from the hospital on March 13 and subsequently attended a separate facility for inpatient physical therapy at the advice of his physician. “I want to sincerely thank everyone for all the kind wishes,” McConnell said in a statement on Saturday. “I’m happy to say I finished inpatient physical therapy earlier today and I’m glad to be home....

Former President Donald Trump on March 25 predicted that Russian President Vladimir Putin would end up conquering all of Ukraine. Trump made the comments during the first rally of his 2024 presidential campaign in Waco, Texas. When the Russo-Ukrainian conflict escalated in February 2022, Trump said, Putin “wanted to get a piece” of Ukraine. “Now, it looks like he’ll end up getting the whole thing.” Trump said that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine would not have happened if he had been president. Trump also promised that if he were president, he would end the Russo-Ukrainian conflict “within 24 hours.” To do this, Trump said he would look into funding and other financial ties between the United States, Russia, and Ukraine to force a compromise....

President Donald Trump opened the first rally of his 2024 campaign with a recording of imprisoned Jan. 6 defendants singing the national anthem. The song played after Trump walked on stage in Waco, Texas, The announcer asked the people in the crowd to stand and place their hands over their hearts. The tune, which is a collage of the national anthem and a recording of Trump reading the Pledge of Allegiance, hit the number-one spot on several major music platforms. Trump helped to produce the song, dubbed “Justice for All.” Trump noted the popularity of the song, saying that “those people [Jan. 6 defendants] mean a lot for our people....

House Republicans sent another letter to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Saturday, requesting the latter to provide more information about the potential indictment against former president Donald Trump. “We reiterate the request in our March 20 letter and ask that you comply in full as soon as possible but no later than March 31, 2023,” the Republicans said in the letter (pdf). The letter was signed by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), House Administration Committee Chair Bryan Steil (R-Wis.), and House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.). Trump issued a statement on March 18 saying he expected to be indicted by Manhattan District Attorney’s Office on March 21....