Post Politics Now: House passes doomed energy bill heading into two-week recess

Today, the Republican-led House passed a sprawling energy bill that would increase oil drilling and roll back parts of President Biden’s climate agenda with an aim of lowering gas prices before next year’s elections. The bill has no chance in the Senate, and Biden has vowed to veto it if it ever reaches his desk. Following the vote, the House adjourned for a two-week recess as a standoff with Biden continues over raising the debt limit and as Republicans continue to delay producing a budget plan.

The Senate is heading into a recess as well. Biden has no public events on his schedule but is touting new measures related to banking safeguards and electric vehicles. Vice President Harris is in Tanzania as she continues a trip to Africa.

5:05 PM: Take a look: Democrats’ anger boils over after GOP witnesses testify without taking questions

Democratic lawmakers didn’t hold back their anger Thursday at a House hearing about social media and censorship when a pair of Republican witnesses delivered testimony and left without being questioned.

As Azi Paybarah writes, the shouting began after Sen. Eric Schmitt (R), the former attorney general of Missouri, and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry (R) testified before a House subcommittee about what they claimed was the Biden administration’s effort to censor conservative voices online. After the two spoke, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the subcommittee chairman, dismissed them.

“We’ll let you move on to your other responsibilities and we’ll get to our next witnesses,” Jordan said. Democrats immediately interrupted, asking why Jordan wouldn’t allow them to ask questions as Schmitt and Landry stood up and left the room. Democrats then tried to have the two witnesses’ testimony struck from the record.

“We aren’t able to probe the veracity of their statements, the truthfulness of their statements,” Rep. Stephen F. Lynch (D-Mass.) said. When Jordan told him, “You will be given your five minutes here,” Lynch replied, “They’re not here,” referring to the witnesses. “They’re absent,” he said, and they “scurried away, with your complicity.”

Jordan, speaking over Lynch, said: “They have not scurried away. They were dismissed like all witnesses.” As the two men traded remarks, Lynch fumed: “You can’t find two people to defend their statements. That’s pretty disgraceful.”

Read more on this squabble here.

5:00 PM: The latest: Newsom forms group to fight ‘rising authoritarianism’ in red states

© Philip Cheung for The Washington Post California Gov. Gavin Newsom is starting a group that will help support Democratic activists in red states.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is launching a political organization that will take the Democrat to red states across the country as he pushes back against restrictive abortion laws, loosened gun-safety regulations, curriculum restrictions and other initiatives Republican elected officials are spearheading.

As Maeve Reston reports, Newsom, who is widely viewed as a potential future Democratic White House contender, plans to travel to “states where freedom is most under attack,” he says in a video, to meet with like-minded activists, students, candidates and elected officials who he said are often fighting a lonely battle in places Democrats don’t typically visit. He is setting out on his first trip this weekend — to Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama — to meet with local activists, accompanied by his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and his children.

Per Maeve:

Newsom is also framing the effort as a new bulwark against attempts to erode LGBTQ protections and an unrelenting drive within some sectors of the GOP to reshape academic curriculum and ban certain books in schools. He is seeding the group, which will be called the Campaign for Democracy and organized as a nonprofit, with $10 million from his campaign war chest, and he plans to use the fund to help aligned ideological groups and candidates.

The California governor’s push stems from his frustration that GOP leaders such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — amplified by conservative media outlets — are dominating the national conversation with their moves on education, abortion, guns and immigration while Democrats have failed to offer a compelling alternative narrative.

Read more on Newsom’s group here.

3:36 PM: Noted: White House dismisses McCarthy’s jab at Biden’s age

© Matt McClain/The Washington Post House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Thursday.

The White House on Thursday tried to shut down an apparent attack on President Biden’s age by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who earlier in the day claimed Republicans had been trying to arrange a meeting with Biden to continue negotiations on the debt ceiling.

“I would bring lunch to the White House. I would make it soft food, if that’s what he wants,” McCarthy said at a GOP news conference. “It doesn’t matter. Whatever it takes to meet.”

Asked Thursday about the comment, interpreted as a jab at Biden’s age, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said curtly that “the president is able to pick out his own Starbucks, so I’ll say that.”

She then quickly pivoted to how Republicans had still not presented a budget, something Biden and Democratic lawmakers have said would be necessary before an Oval Office meeting could occur. The White House issued a budget plan earlier this month.

“What we really need from Speaker McCarthy and House Republicans is to see their budget,” Jean-Pierre said Thursday. “Where’s the budget? They come up with excuses.”

She added: “We want to see what they value. We want to see exactly what it is that they want to cut. So let’s have that budget discussion. What does the speaker want to discuss? What are the specific cuts? What taxes does he want to raise? It’s been three weeks. We’ve had our budget out.”

By: Amy B Wang

3:20 PM: The latest: White House says Biden will not veto resolution on ending covid emergency

The White House confirmed that President Biden will not veto a congressional resolution that would end the national emergency enacted at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Senate passed the resolution Wednesday in a largely symbolic vote, given that Biden told Congress in January that the national emergency would end in May. The resolution passed under the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to overturn rules by federal agencies via a simple majority vote. House Democrats overwhelmingly voted against the measure last month.

Ahead of the vote on the resolution Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) told colleagues that Biden would not veto the measure, according to a person who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail private conversations among Senate Democrats.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed this Thursday.

“If the president was planning to veto this legislation, the Senate would have said so,” Jean-Pierre said.

Asked whether the president changed his mind on ending the national emergency before May, Jean-Pierre reminded reporters that his Statement of Administration Policy was issued in January — before the House vote — so Democrats already knew that the end of these declarations was coming.

“The SAP was issued in January for two bills that would have lifted both the public health emergency and also the national emergency immediately, which, as you know, we oppose,” Jean-Pierre said.

The resolution, she added, “would only lift the national emergency, which doesn’t impact Title 42 or covert authorities like for testing and for treatments.”

3:10 PM: The latest: White House slams ‘yet another attack’ on Obamacare

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre slammed the decision by a federal judge in Texas to strike down a preventive care mandate in the Affordable Care Act on Thursday, calling it “yet another attack” on the program that is often also referred to as Obamacare.

“The Supreme Court has upheld the legality of the ACA three times,” Jean-Pierre told reporters, adding that 60 percent of Americans use a preventive care service under the Affordable Care Act every year, such as screenings for cancer and heart disease.

“Preventive care saves lives. It saves families money and protects and improves our health,” she said. “This case gets between patients and their doctors. … It’s yet another attack on the ability of Americans to make their own health care choices.”

She said Justice and the Health and Human Services departments were reviewing the decision by the Texas judge, and that the Biden administration would continue to work to improve access to affordable health care in the country. Just last week, the White House celebrated the 13th anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act where President Biden warned that GOP efforts to repeal the ACA would have “a devastating impact on the American people.”

By: Amy B Wang

2:01 PM: Analysis: Disney’s move may rob DeSantis of 2024 calling card

© Octavio Jones/Reuters A person wearing a mouse costume takes selfies with supporters of Florida's Republican-backed education bill, dubbed "Don't Say Gay" by its critics, that bans classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity for many young students. (REUTERS/Octavio Jones/File Photo)

Of all the battles that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has picked in his various culture wars, none looms larger than the one against Disney. DeSantis has turned his fight into a calling card, even as some Republicans have expressed discomfort with the government going after private businesses over their political views.

And, as Aaron Blake writes, we just learned that Disney has ratcheted up the battle — with implications for the 2024 presidential race.

In a previously unpublicized move from last month, the Walt Disney Co. sought to preempt a DeSantis-led takeover of its special tax district by passing restrictive new covenants that appear to neuter DeSantis’s new handpicked board.

The move could reverberate during DeSantis’s expected 2024 presidential campaign. DeSantis declared a month ago, “Today the corporate kingdom finally comes to an end” and “There’s a new sheriff in town.” But it looks as if he’ll have to engage in a legal battle to back his boasts. And already, the discovery of Disney’s new gambit is leading to charges that DeSantis’s move was mostly for show.

As Aaron explains:

DeSantis initially tried to revoke Disney’s special tax status altogether last year, following the corporation’s opposition to the Florida education bill dubbed “don’t say gay” by its critics. He was ultimately forced to back off that when it proved impractical. But this year he engineered what was billed as a takeover of the board that oversees Disney’s development — formerly known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District. The board is now made up of five members appointed by the governor.

Some at the time suggested that Disney was conceding defeat to the governor, appearing to give the would-be GOP 2024 nominee a major victory. Yet it turns out that the day before the Florida House voted to give DeSantis the power to install the new board, the previous board quietly passed new covenants. New board members say those covenants substantially hamstring the board’s ability to do much of anything.

“This essentially makes Disney the government,” new board member Ron Peri told the Orlando Sentinel. “This board loses, for practical purposes, the majority of its ability to do anything beyond maintain the roads and maintain basic infrastructure.” …

A DeSantis spokesperson late Wednesday said that “DeSantis always thinks 10 steps ahead,” but other comments from the governor’s team suggest it is still trying to figure out what this means and how to fight it. … DeSantis has a big decision to make about how hard to fight this. The move clearly undermines a major policy action and signature political issue. Should DeSantis fight it and lose, it would be another blow for an effort he has already been forced to pull back on.

Read more on what the Disney move means for DeSantis here.

1:36 PM: This just in: Texas judge invalidates ACA promise of free preventive health services

© Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post President Joe Biden holds the baby of Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) following remarks at an Affordable Care Act anniversary event in the East Room of the White House on Thursday.

A Texas federal judge who previously held the entire Affordable Care Act unconstitutional ruled Thursday against a part of the health-care law that promises free preventive services to every American who has private health insurance.

The Post’s Amy Goldstein reports that U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor invalidated the ACA’s mandate that insurers must cover certain forms of prevention — including cancer screenings and medicines to avoid cardiovascular disease — at no cost to patients, finding that the federal task force that defines which services must be cost-free is not created in a proper way for its role. Per Amy:

O’Connor also found that requiring free coverage of one form of care, PrEP to prevent HIV, violates the plaintiffs’ rights under a federal law guaranteeing religious freedom.

Thursday’s opinion, in a 2020 lawsuit brought by a group of Christian businesses, applies nationwide immediately. But its practical impact is murky.

That is partly because the Department of Health and Human Services, the defendant in the lawsuit, is widely expected to ask the court for a stay preventing the ruling from taking effect while the Biden administration appeals the ruling.

Democrats were quick to criticize the ruling, with Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) calling it “extreme.”

“Yet again, a Republican activist judge has issued a ruling based on MAGA ideology and not the law that would decimate our health-care system and is opposed by a vast majority of Americans,” Schumer said, referring to former president Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

You can read Amy’s full story here.

1:25 PM: The latest: Justice Dept. loses second ‘judge shopping’ case in Texas

© AP In this video still, Matthew Kacsmaryk listens during his confirmation hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee in December 2017.

A federal judge has rejected a Justice Department request to transfer a high-profile investment-related lawsuit against the Biden administration to a different courthouse, rebuffing the government’s claims that the plaintiffs wrongly filed in a district that would guarantee a conservative judge favorable to their case.

As Perry Stein reports, the decision by U.S. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk is the second defeat in the Justice Department’s effort to fight what some legal experts say is a growing problem of judge- or forum-shopping — a strategy in which plaintiffs file in single-judge divisions, bypassing the random assignment of judges that is considered a tenet of the American legal system.

A third case, which the Justice Department asked to be transferred away from a different single-judge division in Texas, is pending.

Per Perry:

Kacsmaryk, whose courthouse is in Amarillo, Tex., ruled that he would continue to preside over a case challenging a Labor Department policy that allows retirement plan managers to consider climate change and other social issues in their investment decisions.

The Justice Department had said that the lawsuit by the Republican attorneys general of Texas and other states should be filed in Austin —Texas’s capital — or in D.C. The Labor Department issued the rule after the Trump administration blocked retirement-plan managers from considering social issues in their investment decisions.

“Presumably, Defendants do not ask this Court to effectively ban Plaintiffs from ever filing in the Amarillo Division again,” Kacsmaryk wrote in a sharply worded, sometimes acerbic decision. “But when should their next case in the Amarillo Division survive a motion to transfer? Defendants do not explain.”

Kacsmaryk, an appointee of President Donald Trump, is presiding over multiple cases with potentially significant national implications. The most closely watched is a lawsuit challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, a key abortion medication.

Oral arguments in that case, brought by a conservative legal group on behalf of antiabortion medical organizations and four doctors, were March 15; Kacsmaryk could rule at any time.

Read more on his ruling in the investment-related lawsuit here.

12:49 PM: The latest: McCarthy offers to take ‘soft food’ to Biden to negotiate debt ceiling

© Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post President Biden walks with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) after a St. Patrick's Day luncheon on Capitol Hill on March 17.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Thursday reiterated his eagerness for in-person negotiations with President Biden over raising the nation’s debt limit — and took an apparent dig at the 80-year-old leader’s age.

“I would bring the lunch to the White House. I would make it soft food if that’s what he wants,” McCarthy said.

He was responding to a reporter’s question at a news conference called to celebrate House passage of an energy package that stands virtually no chance in the Democratic-controlled Senate and which Biden has threatened to veto.

House Republicans are insisting on spending cuts in exchange for supporting legislation to raise the debt ceiling — a posture they did not take during the Trump administration, when the limit was raised three times without conditions.

Biden is pushing for a clean bill but has said he is willing to compare budget plans with the Republicans once they produce theirs.

McCarthy reiterated his view Thursday that conditions should be attached to the debt-limit legislation.

“I don’t understand why he thinks the debt ceiling just gets raised,” McCarthy said of Biden.

12:46 PM: Analysis: Taiwan’s president is ‘transiting’ through the U.S.

© John Minchillo/AP Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen arrives at a New York hotel on Thursday.

What travel agent would think it convenient to fly through New York from Asia on the way to Central America? When is a foreign president’s travel to the United States not a “visit” but a mere “transit”? What makes China warn of a “serious, serious, serious” confrontation with the United States?

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen touched down in the Big Apple on Wednesday. The White House and State Department are insisting, in keeping with diplomatic tradition, that it is a “transit” not a “visit” because the United States is trying to keep the blowback from Beijing to a minimum, Olivier Knox writes in Thursday’s Daily 202. (Okay, officially, it’s because the United States and Taiwan do not have formal diplomatic relations.)

Tsai will “transit” through the United States to Belize and Guatemala. Then, on her way home, she will “transit” again, this time through Los Angeles. In California, she’s expected to make a speech and meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

Per Olivier:

If that sounds more like a trip to Taiwan’s most important international patron, and two of the dwindling number of countries that formally recognize Taipei rather than Beijing, than it does a stopover in the world’s largest airport departure lounge, well, you’re not a diplomat.

Read more about her travel plans here.

12:31 PM: Analysis from Mariana Alfaro, Reporter on the breaking political news team

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Thursday sidestepped a question on gun legislation in the wake of the Nashville mass shooting.

“The problem that we [have] today is not just going to be a legislation, [we’re] going to have a severe conversation here with this country,” McCarthy said. “We’ve got to deal with mental illness. We’ve got to see what’s driving individuals to think you would go to innocent children, the Christian school, to shoot.”

“I don’t think one piece of legislation solves this,” McCarthy added. He, however, did not lay out any specific GOP plans.

12:28 PM: The latest: White House condemns Russia’s detention of Wall Street Journal reporter

The White House on Thursday condemned Russia’s detention of a Wall Street Journal reporter “in the strongest terms” and said the State Department has been “in direct touch” with the Russian government on the issue.

The statement from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre followed reports that Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, had arrested Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, a U.S. citizen assigned to the newspaper’s Moscow bureau, and accused him of being a spy for the United States.

“We are deeply concerned by the troubling reports that Evan Gershkovich, an American citizen, has been detained in Russia,” Jean-Pierre said. “Last night, White House and State Department Officials spoke with Mr. Gershkovich’s employer, the Wall Street Journal. The administration has also been in contact with his family. Furthermore, the State Department has been in direct touch with the Russian government on this matter, including actively working to secure consular access to Mr. Gershkovich.”

“The targeting of American citizens by the Russian government is unacceptable,” Jean-Pierre added. “We condemn the detention of Mr. Gershkovich in the strongest terms. We also condemn the Russian government’s continued targeting and repression of journalists and freedom of the press.”

She also emphasized that Americans should heed the U.S. government’s warning not to travel to Russia.

12:13 PM: The latest: House GOP passes energy package with eye on gas prices, 2024

© J. Scott Applewhite/AP House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) speaks at the Capitol in Washington after House Republicans approved a sprawling energy package.

House Republicans passed legislation Thursday that would increase oil drilling and mining on public lands and waters, defying President Biden’s climate agenda and fulfilling a campaign promise to focus on lowering gasoline prices ahead of the 2024 election.

The Post’s Maxine Joselow and Marianna Sotomayor report that the sprawling 175-page package, known as the Lower Energy Costs Act, would slash some environmental regulations and reinstate suspended oil and gas leases. It also would repeal parts of the Democrats’ landmark climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act. Per our colleagues:

While the House approved the measure largely along party lines, it is not expected to become law. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) has said the package will be “dead on arrival” in the Democratic-controlled Senate, while Biden has said he would veto the measure if it reached his desk.

But Republicans believe the bill will send a potent message to voters that they kept a midterm election promise to lower gas prices, which spiked after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year before drifting downward in recent months. They argue that Biden’s climate policies, including his decision to revoke a key permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, are responsible for widespread pain at the pump.

You can read the full story here.

12:03 PM: The latest: Maryland voters to see constitutional referendum on abortion rights

© Michael Robinson Chávez/The Washington Post Democrats in the Maryland General Assembly find a new state government analysis of child poverty is accurate, though disturbing. The analysis identified about 110,000 new students qualify for anti-poverty programs.

Maryland voters will decide whether to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution next year, the state General Assembly decided Thursday, placing Maryland among a wave of deep-blue states erecting defenses around abortion access as other states restrict or criminalize the procedure.

The Post’s Erin Cox writes that the 2024 referendum — expected to pass because of broad public support for abortion rights in Maryland — is among protective measures being advanced this session by lawmakers spurred to act by restrictions on abortion passed elsewhere. Per our colleague:

Maryland Democrats who pushed for the putting reproductive rights into the state constitution also have given preliminary approval to legislation to shield patients and providers from criminal laws passed in antiabortion states, as well as to hide abortion care in digital medical records.

Both of those bills have cleared preliminary votes in both chambers and Gov. Wes Moore (D) promised to sign them, saying he wants to make Maryland “a safe haven for abortion.”

You can read the full story here.

11:45 AM: The latest: Biden salutes courage of transgender Americans in proclamation

© Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post President Biden arrives to deliver remarks on maintaining the banking system and protecting our economic recovery on Monday. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)

President Biden on Thursday called transgender Americans “some of the bravest people I know” in a proclamation marking a Transgender Day of Visibility.

“Today, we show millions of transgender and nonbinary Americans that we see them, they belong, and they should be treated with dignity and respect,” Biden said. “Their courage has given countless others strength, but no one should have to be brave just to be themselves. Every American deserves that freedom.”

Biden’s proclamation comes amid a spate of unfounded claims by right-wing personalities that transgender Americans are a potential pool of mass shooters after the mass killing at a small Christian school in Nashville.

Police have said that Audrey Hale, the 28-year-old they identified as the shooter who killed six people in Monday’s rampage, was transgender, citing a social media profile in which Hale used masculine pronouns. The Post has not confirmed how Hale identified.

Biden detailed steps his administration is taking to address injustices facing “the entire LGBTQI+ community” but acknowledged “there is much more to do.”

“I continue to call on the Congress to finally pass the Equality Act and extend long overdue civil rights protections to all LGBTQI+ Americans to ensure they can live with safety and dignity,” Biden said. “Together, we also have to keep challenging the hundreds of hateful state laws that have been introduced across the country, making sure every child knows that they are made in the image of God, that they are loved, and that we are standing up for them.”

The Equality Act would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, public accommodations, education and other areas.

11:06 AM: Noted: Republican congressman calls D.C. schools ‘inmate factories’

Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.), speaks during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing Wednesday. (Al Drago/Bloomberg News)

Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) blasted public schools in D.C. during a congressional hearing that focused largely on crime in the city, calling the schools “crappy” and accusing them of producing criminals.

“Your schools are not only dropout factories, they’re inmate factories,” Palmer on Wednesday told a panel of D.C. officials that included D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D), council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), the city’s chief financial officer and the police union chairman. The statement came as Palmer questioned leaders about juvenile crimes involving guns and drugs.

The Post’s Lauren Lumpkin reports that Mendelson, who chairs the D.C. Council committee that oversees education issues, pushed back. “I don’t agree that the D.C. public schools are inmate factories.” Per our colleague:

Mendelson appeared in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability to answer questions that revolved around crime and policing. The hearing came as the Republican-majority committee prepared to decide whether to advance a measure blocking D.C.’s major police accountability legislation.

But, at some points, congressional lawmakers directed questions toward the District’s schools. GOP members criticized city leaders for low test scores and the rate of chronic absenteeism, which skyrocketed to 48 percent after schools reopened last year. The share of chronically absent students fell to 41 percent — still above pre-pandemic levels — in December, according to the city’s attendance task force.

You can read the full story here.

10:42 AM: The latest: Jeffries says House needs to act on war authorization bill

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Democrats are going to “make it clear” that the House needs to take action on legislation passed Wednesday by the Senate that would repeal decades-old authorizations for the use of military force for the Iraq and Persian Gulf wars.

The bill — a move by Congress to reassert its constitutional authority to declare war — passed on a 66-30 vote with strong bipartisan support, and the White House has signaled it will back the legislation.

Senate votes to repeal decades-old authorizations for Iraq, Gulf wars

But the path forward in the House is unclear, in part because Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) has said he wants to take a different approach. McCaul is seeking to use the repeal of the Iraq authorizations as a chance to rewrite another authorization that would give the president the authority to take action against Iran.

Asked about that at a news conference, Jeffries said he would defer to Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (N.Y.), the top Democrat on Foreign Relations.

“We haven’t made any decisions one way or the other with respect to a particular legislative approach, but we are going to continue to make it clear that Congress must act,” Jeffries said.

10:14 AM: Analysis: The country’s sixth state privacy law is too ‘weak,’ advocates say

© Charlie Neibergall/AP Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R)

Iowa became the sixth state to sign a comprehensive data privacy law this week, as public officials nationwide look to fill a void left by policymakers in Washington. The state joins California, Virginia, Utah, Connecticut and Colorado — the only ones with such a law on the books.

Writing in The Technology 202, The Post’s Cristiano Lima says that privacy advocates are sounding off on the latest measure, calling its protections “weak” and warning that it could set a risky precedent for the broader privacy debate. Per Cristiano:

The law, S.F. 262, grants state residents the right to know what personal information is being collected from them and to be able have it deleted, to obtain a copy of their data to potentially transfer it elsewhere, and to “opt out of the sale of personal data.”

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R), who signed the law Tuesday, said in a statement announcing it that “it’s never been more important to state, clearly and unmistakably, that consumers deserve a reasonable level of transparency and control over their personal data.”

But privacy advocates say the law creates few new checks on what data companies can scoop up.

Instead, it puts much of the burden on users to opt out of collection, they say, a framework that has long been panned by groups pushing for stricter rules.

You can read the full analysis here.

9:54 AM: Noted: How democratic are the countries at Biden’s democracy summit?

© Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post President Biden delivers remarks during the Summit for Democracy in the South Court Auditorium at the White House complex on Wednesday.

President Biden, propelled by a conviction that the 21st century will be defined by competition between “democracy vs. autocracy,” convened his second Summit for Democracy this week and invited the leaders of more than 100 countries to discuss human rights, confronting authoritarianism and lessening corruption.

The Post’s Matthew Brown writes that the invite list includes over half of the countries recognized by the United Nations, and there are complex differences between the democracies present. Per our colleague:

“I think the Biden administration has taken a big-tent approach, and there is merit to that,” said Nicole Bibbins Sedaca, executive vice president of Freedom House, a nonprofit research group that monitors and advocates for democracy around the world. “But for me, the bigger question is, can they use this opportunity to galvanize change within all of the countries that are attending and find unity to push for a global community that is more democratic.”

Freedom House’s March report, “Freedom in the World,” scores how democratic various countries are based on factors including respect for political pluralism and civil rights, government stability and the independence of the electoral process. When compared alongside the list of nations invited to Biden’s summit, provided by the State Department, the report reveals significant diversity — and some dispute — in what countries constitute a democracy.

While democracy has declined globally for 17 years, according to Freedom House, there were significant bright spots last year for expanding global freedoms that nearly offset what many have dubbed a democratic recession. Biden was emphatic in remarks on Wednesday about the state of democracy: “I hope what everyone gathered here and everyone watching around the world takes away from this summit: It’s working.”

You can read Matt’s full piece, which takes stock of where attendees rank, here.

9:32 AM: The latest: Fetterman’s wife recounts ‘vicious attacks’ following his decision to seek treatment

© Caroline Gutman/For The Washington Post Gisele Fetterman greets people at a John Fetterman for U.S. Senate campaign rally in Philadelphia on Sept. 24.

In a new op-ed in Elle, Gisele Fetterman, the wife of Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), responds to “vicious attacks” she received after her husband checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to seek treatment for clinical depression.

“To hear my critics tell it, it’s my fault that John ran for Senate,” she wrote in the op-ed published Thursday. “It’s my fault that he won. It’s my fault that he had a stroke, and it’s my fault that he’s depressed. And somehow, at the same time, I’m just a wife who should stay at home and out of the public eye.”

She said she has found the attacks “really exhausting” despite trying to block them out.

“Some days I just feel drained and have to let it out in a good cry,” she wrote. “Even more, I worry about the millions of women who hear these attacks on TV and social media and then internalize these myths in their own lives.”

The Post’s Liz Goodwin reported Wednesday that the senator will return to Congress during the week of April 17, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the lawmaker’s condition.

The 53-year-old checked himself into Walter Reed in February after he was evaluated by the attending physician of Congress, Brian P. Monahan, who suggested inpatient care for depression that had become “severe in recent weeks,” the senator’s chief of staff, Adam Jentleson, said in a statement at the time.

9:08 AM: The latest: Biden announces electric vehicle commitments ahead of new regulations

© Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post President Biden takes an electric vehicle for a spin around the South Lawn of the White House on Aug. 5.

President Biden, who has made a U.S. transition to electric vehicles a priority of his administration, on Wednesday announced commitments from a few dozen companies and nonprofits to expand fleets and charging stations and to boost consumer awareness, among other initiatives.

The announcements, part of an effort dubbed the EV Acceleration Challenge, include one from Amazon that it has rolled out more than 3,000 electric delivery vehicles as part of its commitment to bring 100,000 electric delivery vehicles to the road by 2030. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

Other companies offering commitments include Siemens, Hertz, Mercedes-Benz, Google and Wells Fargo.

The announcements come as the Treasury Department prepares to issue long-awaited guidance on which electric vehicles qualify for the tax credits in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act.

Writing in The Climate 202, The Post’s Maxine Joselow says the guidance, while highly technical, could have a profound impact on Biden’s climate agenda and the future of the nation’s auto fleet. You can read more from Maxine here.

8:30 AM: The latest: Manchin, facing reelection, ratchets up criticism of Biden on multiple fronts

© Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 22.

Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) is ratcheting up criticism of President Biden, castigating him for refusing to sit down with “fiscally minded” Republicans to negotiate over the nation’s debt limit and accusing him of allowing “unelected ideologues” in his administration to thwart the will of Congress on energy policy.

Manchin, who has not yet said whether he will run for reelection next year in a state that Biden lost to then-President Donald Trump by nearly 39 percentage points, laid out several of his grievances with Biden in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Wednesday night.

“Mr. Biden was elected to lead us all to solve problems,” Manchin wrote. “We can’t allow them to be made worse by ignoring them. The president has the power, today, to direct his administration to follow the law, as well as to sit down with congressional leaders and negotiate meaningful, serious reforms to the federal budget.

“Failing to do so may score political points with left-wing partisans, but generations of Americans will ultimately pay the price,” Manchin added.

Opinion | Joe Manchin: Stop the political blame game and start cutting the debt

Manchin, one of the most conservative Democrats in the Senate, also threatened Wednesday to sue the Biden administration over its handling of guidance on which electric vehicles qualify for tax credits in last year’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act. In doing so, he voiced fears that the regulations could go “off the rails.”

And Manchin joined Republicans on Wednesday in voting to overturn a Biden administration rule aimed at stronger protection of the nation’s waters.

In the Journal op-ed, Manchin, a champion of the coal industry, complained that “bureaucrats” are subverting energy-related provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act — legislation he negotiated with the White House.

“Specifically, they are ignoring the law’s intent to support and expand fossil energy and are redefining ‘domestic energy’ to increase clean-energy spending to potentially deficit-breaking levels,” he wrote. “The administration is attempting at every turn to implement the bill it wanted, not the bill Congress actually passed.”

8:07 AM: Analysis: States are also moving to cap insulin prices

© Damian Dovarganes/AP At least 11 states are looking to limit patients’ out-of-pocket spending on insulin.

New insulin price caps announced by the nation’s leading manufacturers have recently grabbed headlines, but the effort to lower the price of the lifesaving medication is moving ahead in the states, too.

Writing in The Health 202, The Post’s McKenzie Beard notes that lawmakers in at least 11 states — including Arizona, California and Missouri — have introduced bills this year to limit monthly out-of-pocket costs for certain patients with diabetes. There appears to be early momentum behind such efforts, but it remains unclear how the measures will fare this legislative season. Per our colleague:

The bills are among a rising trend that started in 2019, when Colorado became the first state to pass an insulin cap. In the years since, 22 states and D.C. have passed cost-sharing limits on the drug, which range from $25 to $100 per 30-day supply. However, most of these limits only apply to health plans regulated by states, so gaps remain (more on that later).

Insulin is used daily by over 7 million Americans with diabetes to manage their blood sugar levels. The drug generally costs less than $10 a vial to manufacture, yet the list prices of insulin have doubled, and in some cases tripled, over the past decade, according to a 2021 report from bipartisan Senate investigators. The soaring prices have pushed some patients to ration their insulin, which can lead to fatal complications.

You can read the full analysis here.

7:48 AM: Analysis: House Republicans are poised to pass an energy bill. Now what?

© Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), seen here at a St. Patrick's Day celebration at the Capitol, continue to go back-and-forth about the debt ceiling. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

House Republicans are poised to pass energy legislation Thursday with the support of at least one Democrat, giving Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) his second legislative victory in a week after Republicans passed an education bill Friday along party lines.

It might be a while before the next one, The Post’s Theodoric Meyer and Leigh Ann Caldwell write in The Early 202. Per our colleagues:

House Republicans remain divided over one of the party’s other top priorities, border security legislation, more than two months after tensions over the bill first emerged.

And the party doesn’t appear to be much closer to adopting a budget than it did when McCarthy secured the speakership, as Republicans debate which programs to cut and how much to cut them.

While many Republicans are eager to pass legislation to put pressure on President Biden to step up border security, the impasse over the budget is likely to be more consequential. The border bill — like the education and energy legislation — has no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate.

But Biden has demanded that Republicans produce a budget before he’ll sit down with McCarthy to discuss potential spending cuts, potentially complicating the road to raising the debt limit.

You can read the full analysis here.

7:25 AM: Noted: After #FreeBritney, Senate bill seeks reforms to guardianships

© Katherine Frey/The Washington Post Britney Spears fans show their support at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on July 14, 2021, as she fights to end a conservatorship.

Britney Spears’s successful fight to end the conservatorship that controlled her life for years has spurred a new effort in Congress to retool these types of legal arrangements.

Proposed legislation to be introduced in the Senate on Thursday by Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) would help reduce the number of people under these legal arrangements while also giving them more protection, The Post’s Amanda Morris writes. Per Amanda:

Guardianships, which are known in some states as conservatorships, can strip someone of control over their finances, their personal decisions, or both. Under some arrangements, people can lose their right to marry, vote, have children or get a job. An estimated 1.3 million people live under guardianships, according to a 2018 estimate from the National Council on Disability.

The arrangements are intended to protect people who are incapable of making their own decisions from exploitation and abuse. But advocates for people with disabilities say that guardianships are used too frequently and often are difficult to rescind, as highlighted by Spears’s long fight in 2021 to end her conservatorship, which she called “demoralizing” and “abusive.”

You can read the full story here.

7:05 AM: On our radar: Arizona Democrats to sue No Labels to block third-party challenge

© Ross D. Franklin/AP Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is facing a lawsuit from the state Democratic Party for accepting a signature petition from No Labels for recognition as a political party under state law.

The Arizona Democratic Party will file a lawsuit Thursday against the state’s top election administrator and No Labels, seeking to reverse the moderate group’s recognition as a political party for the 2024 elections, according to Democratic officials.

The Post’s Michael Scherer reports that the lawsuit, in state court in Phoenix, reflects growing concern in Democratic circles that a No Labels third-party ticket in 2024 will jeopardize the reelection hopes of President Biden and make it harder for Democrats to maintain control of the Senate. Per our colleague:

The lawsuit claims that Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, who is a Democrat, made an error in accepting signature petitions for the No Labels Party, because accompanying affidavits from proposed electors were signed before all the petitions were gathered, in violation of state statute. As a result, the Arizona Democratic Party claims the affidavits purporting to verify the petitions should be considered false and the petitions invalid.

The lawsuit also argues that No Labels, which is organized as a social welfare nonprofit that is not required to disclose its donors, has failed to comply with the federal requirements of a political party, including donation limits and donor disclosure.

You can read the full story here.

6:45 AM: On our radar: House GOP to pass energy package with eye on gas prices, 2024

House Republicans are expected to pass legislation Thursday that would increase oil drilling and mining on public lands and waters, defying President Biden’s climate agenda and fulfilling a campaign promise to focus on lowering gasoline prices ahead of the 2024 election.

The Post’s Maxine Joselow and Marianna Sotomayor report that the sprawling, 175-page package, known as the Lower Energy Costs Act, would slash some environmental regulations and reinstate suspended oil and gas leases. It also would repeal parts of the Democrats’ landmark climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act. Per our colleagues:

While the House is poised to approve the measure along party lines, it is not expected to become law. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) has said the package will be “dead on arrival” in the Democratic-controlled Senate, while Biden has said he would veto the measure if it reached his desk.

But Republicans believe the bill will send a potent message to voters that they kept a midterm election promise to lower gas prices, which spiked after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year before drifting downward in recent months. They argue that Biden’s climate policies, including his decision to revoke a key permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, are responsible for widespread pain at the pump.

You can read the full story here.

6:32 AM: On our radar: McCarthy’s meeting with Taiwan’s president puts U.S. on alert

© Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on March 10.

The Biden administration is preparing for China to lash out in response to next week’s highly anticipated meeting in California between Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who would become the highest-ranking U.S. official to meet with a Taiwanese leader on American soil.

The Post’s Ellen Nakashima, John Hudson and Dan Lamothe report that China’s response could be harsh objections or sanctions on McCarthy and other U.S. officials. It might even be a show of military force that matches or exceeds the dramatic display when missiles were fired over Taiwan following then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island in August. Per our colleagues:

The U.S. intelligence community has assessed that Beijing probably will view Tsai’s meeting with McCarthy as less provocative than her meeting in Taipei with Pelosi (D-Calif.) and will refrain from extreme aggression, according to a senior administration official who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.

But the reality is that administration officials don’t know how Beijing will react to Tsai’s travel through the United States. That uncertainty, experts say, underscores the situation’s volatility.

“The Chinese will make their own decisions at the end of the day,” the senior official said.

You can read the full story here.

6:30 AM: Analysis: There is no ‘clear epidemic’ of transgender mass shooters

Donald Trump Jr. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

The mass killing at a small Christian school in Nashville has led to unfounded claims by right-wing personalities, including Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s son, that transgender Americans are a potential vanguard of mass shooters.

Writing in The Fact Checker, The Post’s Glenn Kessler notes that police have said that Audrey Hale, the 28-year-old they identified as the shooter who killed six people in Monday’s rampage, was transgender, citing a social media profile in which Hale used masculine pronouns. The Post has not confirmed how Hale identified. Per Glenn:

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) had her Twitter account temporarily restricted after she posted a screenshot of a graphic that referred to a “Trans Day of Vengeance” in the wake of the shooting; she was referring to an event aimed at protesting anti-trans legislation. (The phrase refers to a meme that has been around in the trans community for some time; Twitter also removed tweets supporting the event.)

During last year’s mass shooting at a Texas elementary school, Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) tweeted speculation — which he later deleted — that the shooter was a “transsexual leftist illegal alien.” (The shooter was none of those.)

You can read the full analysis here.

6:28 AM: The latest: Congressmen get in shouting match over gun control after Nashville shooting

Days after three children and three adults were fatally shot at a small Christian school in Nashville, a heated discussion over gun control between Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) turned into a shouting match in a hallway outside the House chamber.

The Post’s Andrew Jeong has details:

Bowman, a former middle school principal, was telling reporters that Republicans were “gutless” for not backing gun control laws after this week’s shooting.

Standing in the hallway, Bowman accused Republicans of being “cowards” and said voters should force them “to respond to the question” of how to “save America’s children” from shootings. “And let them explain that all the way up to Election Day in 2024,” he said.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who was walking by, then stopped to ask: “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about gun violence,” Bowman said.

Massie, who once tweeted a holiday photo of his family holding guns, then told Bowman, “You know, there’s never been a school shooting in a school that allows teachers to carry.”

“Carry guns? More guns lead to more death,” Bowman replied, raising his volume.

You can read the full story here.

6:26 AM: Noted: Disney quietly dodged DeSantis’s oversight board, appointees realize

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) during a rally at the OCC Road House and Museum in Pinellas Park, Fla., on March 8. (Thomas Simonetti for The Washington Post)

The Disney World oversight board installed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) accused the previous board of passing an 11th-hour agreement in cahoots with the entertainment giant that has hamstrung much of the new board’s administrative power over the Florida amusement park.

The Post’s Bryan Pietsch reports that DeSantis, an ascendant voice in the Republican Party and widely seen as a likely contender for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination, appointed a new oversight board after Disney criticized education legislation he had promoted that prohibited teachers from discussing gender and sexual orientation in early grades. Per our colleague:

Critics derided the policy as a homophobic and discriminatory “don’t say gay” bill. DeSantis signed it into law last year.

In apparent retaliation for the critique, DeSantis replaced the previous Disney-friendly oversight board known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District with a new board, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, made up entirely of his own appointees, including religious and conservative activists. The board is responsible for approving infrastructure projects, as well as maintaining more mundane aspects of the park, such as trash collection and management of sewer systems. Disney would have been to some degree beholden to DeSantis’s board for its sign-off on major projects, in theory allowing it to hold sway over the company.

But in a bureaucratic coup, Disney and the previous board signed an agreement on Feb. 8 — the day before the Florida House passed a bill paving the way for the DeSantis appointees — that transferred much of the board’s power to Disney.

The new board, much to its chagrin, apparently discovered the agreement only recently.

You can read the full story here.