Presented by

BREAKING — Rep. BARBARA LEE (D-Calif.) is running for Senate, she told Congressional Black Caucus members, per Nick Wu.

UP IN THE AIR — The airways are coming back to life today after the failure of an FAA computer system overnight grounded thousands of flights — yet more chaos for air passengers after winter storms and the Southwest Airlines meltdown over the holidays.

The obscure “Notice to Air Missions” safety system’s technical issueat one point caused the FAA to delay every domestic departure in the country this morning. A former FAA official told WaPo that the nationwide flight stoppage was the first since 9/11. Airport trackers showed thousands of flights delayed and more than 1,000 canceled as a result, with some disruptions likely to continue all day. But by around 9 a.m., the NOTAM system was fully restored, paving the way for a return to normalcy. The military was not affected, the Pentagon said.

Transportation Secretary PETE BUTTIGIEG, who’s had a lot of air problems on his hands lately, on Twitter pledged “an after-action process to determine root causes and recommend next steps.” President JOE BIDEN told reporters he spoke with Buttigieg and asked for a direct report on what went wrong.

The White House and the FBI said there was no evidence of a cyberattack, per NBC, but the cause remains unknown. Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER tweeted that “at this moment there’s no clear evidence of outside interference.”

Congress is already planning to investigate. Senate Commerce Chair MARIA CANTWELL (D-Wash.) said her panel would look into the matter, and House Transportation ranking member RICK LARSEN (D-Wash.) said he’d talked to Buttigieg, per WaPo.

THE TALENTED MR. SANTOS — The pressure isn’t letting up: Republican Party leaders in Nassau County, N.Y., today called on Rep. GEORGE SANTOS (R-N.Y.) to resign from Congress immediately over his serial fabrications, as Julia Marsh reports. The chair called Santos’ campaign last year one “of deceit, lies and fabrication.” Julia notes that some Republicans see this as a necessary move to prevent the Biden-won swing seat from flipping back to Democrats next year.

It’s not just local officials: At the presser, fellow freshman Rep. ANTHONY D’ESPOSITO (R-N.Y.) also called on Santos to resign. He’s the first Republican House member to do so. And former Rep. PETER KING (R-N.Y.) joined him.

But Santos is holding firm: He told ABC’s Rachel Scott and Lalee Ibssa that he won’t resign. House GOP leaders, meanwhile, responded to reporters’ questions by saying they hadn’t yet seen the Nassau news.

Speaker KEVIN McCARTHY did tell CNN’s Manu Raju that Santos wouldn’t get placed on any of the highest-profile committees, like Ways and Means or Judiciary. “No,” McCarthy scoffed.

Related read:“George Santos Took Donation From Migrant-Smuggler,” by The Daily Beast’s William Bredderman: “Santos took an almost certainly illegal donation from an Italian national and confessed smuggler of undocumented immigrants — who also happens to be the blood relative of some of his closest local supporters and campaign vendors. The gift from ROCCO OPPEDISANO — expelled from the U.S. in January 2019, and who was subsequently intercepted piloting a yacht packed with unauthorized migrants and $200,000 in cash toward Florida—was just one facet of the support the freshman Republican and immigration hardliner received from the Queens-based clan that controls upscale eatery Il Bacco.”

REMEMBERING BLAKE HOUNSHELL — We’re still mourning our former Playbook editor, most recently of the NYT, who died Tuesday. More colleagues and others who knew and loved Blake have continued to write in with remembrances: We’ve compiled the new ones here. And if you’d like to support his wife and young kids through this time, his colleagues from the Times and POLITICO have set up this GoFundMe for contributions.

If you or a loved one are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Good Wednesday afternoon, and thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at [email protected].

BEYOND THE BELTWAY

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE IS TOUTING — A solar manufacturing company from South Korea announced plans for $2.5 billion in investments at one existing and one new plant in Georgia — “the largest single investment in solar manufacturing in the U.S.,” the Savannah Morning News’ Marisa Mecke reports. Expected to create 2,500 jobs, the move from Hanwha Q CELLS sets up their Georgia facilities to produce a significant share of the country’s solar panels. Democrats trumpeted the announcement as a major victory stemming from the Inflation Reduction Act.

JUDICIARY SQUARE

SCOTUS WATCH — The Supreme Court today declined to take up an emergency challenge to New York’s new gun control law, largely without comment. Court cases against the law, which restricts who can carry guns in public and where, are ongoing in federal appeals court. But New York can enforce the law in the meantime. Justices SAMUEL ALITO and CLARENCE THOMAS warned that the legislation “presents novel and serious questions,” but said they’d let the appeals court take up those questions for now. More from the NYT

THE LONG ARM OF GITMO — “They Won Guantánamo’s Supreme Court Cases. Where Are They Now?” by NYT’s Carol Rosenberg: “We caught up with two of the men, one in a gray industrial town in central England where he grew up, the other a thousand miles away in the sun-splashed Riviera in France. The third is struggling in war-torn Yemen. All three of the former prisoners were reunited with their families years ago and managed to build new lives despite the abuse they endured and the stigma of having been held at Guantánamo.”

CONGRESS

NIGHT OF THE HUNTER — House Republicans are wasting no time in flexing their oversight muscles toward HUNTER BIDEN: House Oversight Chair JAMES COMER (R-Ky.) today said he’s again asking Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN for any bank suspicious activity reports related to the Biden family. He also said the committee wants to grill former Twitter executives about limiting information related to the Bidens. The panel’s Republicans put out an “interim report” about Hunter Biden they’ve been compiling for the past couple of months from publicly available info. More from Bloomberg

McCARTHY’S MOVES — The House has a new general counsel: McCarthy is elevating TODD TATELMAN, who’s currently principal deputy general counsel, to lead the office on an acting basis. “The House will no longer be taking hyper-politicized stances in amicus curiae or in litigation,” McCarthy vowed in a statement.

FEELING THE BERN — New Senate HELP Chair BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.) tells WaPo’s Rachel Roubein that prescription drug prices, not Medicare for All, are at the top of his agenda for the committee this Congress. He’s also focused on “expanding primary care, bolstering the health workforce and beefing up rural health care.” And he wants to talk with all the panel’s members, including Republicans, about moving forward on various policies, even when bipartisanship seems elusive.

EAT UP — Members of the House now can get paid back for food, lodging and other expenses they incur while they’re on official business in D.C., thanks to a bipartisan change approved in the last Congress. That effectively amounts to something of a pay increase for members who haven’t gotten a cost-of-living adjustment in over a decade. More from Bloomberg Government

POLICY CORNER

SHUTDOWN SHOWDOWN — The Treasury Department says its borrowing authority will hit a ceiling perhaps in the next few weeks, as soon as sometime this month, AP’s Josh Boak and Fatima Hussein preview. Then the department will have to use “extraordinary measures” to keep the government open, most likely running until the summer — at which point Congress’ looming debt ceiling fight will come to a head.

PUTTING OUT THE FIRE — After an outcry from Republicans and Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.), the Consumer Product Safety Commission clarified today that it does not plan to ban gas stoves.

ALL POLITICS

CASH DASH — Rep. KATIE PORTER (D-Calif.) announced that she raked in $1.3 million in the first day since she announced her Senate campaign — a pretty striking haul for the early stages of a Senate race.

IT’S OFFICIAL — Former Rep. HARLEY ROUDA announced he’ll run for Porter’s current seat.

POLL POSITION — In Morning Consult’s latest regular survey of senators’ home-state popularity, JOHN BARRASSO (R-Wyo.) tops the list at 66% approval, while Minority Leader MITCH McCONNELL bringsup the rear in Kentucky at 29%. Notable for 2024: JON TESTER (D-Mont.) is sitting fairly pretty at 60% approval/30% disapproval. But the bottom 10 has several senators who’ll face voters soon, including KYRSTEN SINEMA (I-Ariz.) at 37%, JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) at 40%, TED CRUZ (R-Texas) at 45% and MITT ROMNEY (R-Utah) at 46%.

PENCE FOR YOUR THOUGHTS — Former VP MIKE PENCE talked with CBS’ Robert Costa about Biden’s classified documents, where he blasted the DOJ for what he considers a double standard, and the chaos in Brasilia — where he staked out some less common ground for the GOP. “It is evidence that what happens in the United States has repercussions around the world,” Pence said. “I have no doubt that that tragic day in January of 2021 in this country played some role in sowing the seeds of what's taking place in Brazil.”

AFTERNOON READ — “How Montana Took a Hard Right Turn Toward Christian Nationalism,” by Abe Streep in the NYT Magazine: “Montana has a tradition of ticket-splitting and has long been one of the most politically independent states in the union … But in recent years, Republicans have managed to secure an ironclad grasp over state government, and the religious right is ascendant. … [T]he rise of Montana’s Christian right has been enabled by the weakening of the state Democratic Party. It has become harder for Montana Democrats to separate themselves from the national party and, as a result, ticket-splitting has dropped … Changes to campaign-finance laws have also contributed to tipping the balance of power.”

WE’LL ALL BE FLORIDA MEN — As America ages, the future of the country could look a lot like Florida, WaPo’s Philip Bump writes in an excerpt from his new book, “The Aftermath” ($30). In 2060 demographic projections, “the states that look most like how the United States is expected to look in the future are ones that right now vote more heavily Democratic. The ones that look least like that projection are ones that vote more heavily Republican.” Except Florida, which leads the pack, and — from climate change to both domestic and international migration — offers plenty of previews of the America to come.

AMERICA AND THE WORLD

TO RUSSIA, WITH LOVE — U.S. Treasury officials and Western allies are meeting this week to ready the details of the next round of sanctions on Russian oil companies, WSJ’s Andrew Duehren reports. “The penalties will set two price limits on Russian refined products: one on high-value exports such as diesel and another on low-value ones such as fuel oil.” Those could have a more significant impact than the recent price cap on Russian crude.

PLAYBOOKERS

IN MEMORIAM—“Prominent conservative lawyer William Consovoy dies at 48,” by Reuters’ Jacqueline Thomsen and David Thomas: “Consovoy was diagnosed with brain cancer two years ago. … Consovoy and his firm also represented former President Donald Trump in his lawsuits challenging congressional subpoenas for his personal financial records … He argued before the U.S. Supreme Court multiple times and had been set to appear before the court again last fall in a closely watched case challenging affirmative action policies at Harvard University.”

OUT AND ABOUT — The Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus hosted a ceremonial swearing-in for Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander members of Congress and members of CAPAC at the Capitol on Tuesday night, with Florence Pan administering the ceremonial oath of office. SPOTTED: Reps. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), Mark Takano (D-Calif.), Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii), Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Bobby Scott (D-Va.), Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), Ami Bera (D-Calif.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Lou Correa (D-Calif.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) and Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.), Dels. Jim Moylan (R-Guam) and Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (D-Northern Mariana Islands), Kiran Ahuja, Erika Moritsugu, Madalene Xuan-Trang Mielke, Robert Shriver, Mary Kay Henry, Aimee Cho, Don Cravins Jr.,Michael Coen Jr., Nisha Ramachandran, Krystal Ka‘ai, Jenny Yang, Linda Shim, Hannah Kim and Juliet Choi. Pic

— SPOTTED at the Coalition for Cannabis Policy, Education, and Regulation’s welcome reception for the new Congress on Tuesday night: Reps. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio), Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), Brian Mast (R-Fla.) and Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.), Tom Daschle, Greg Walden, Nathan Daschle, Naveen Parmar, Chris Cox, Chanse Jones, Alekhya Tallapaka, Andrew Freedman, Shanita Penny, Tate Bennett, Will May, Liz Lopez, Michelle Dimarob and Nell Reilly.

TRANSITIONS —Jeff Wieand is now a public policy adviser at WilmerHale. He previously served as counsel to Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and is a Mike Fitzpatrick and Tom Marino alum. … Claire Nance is now comms director for Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.). She previously was comms director for Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), and is a Trump White House alum … Lauren Crawford Shaver is now senior managing director and head of health care and life sciences for the Americas at FTI Consulting. She previously was a partner at Forbes Tate Partners. …

… Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) has added Walton Stivender as scheduling director and Michael Manucy as legislative correspondent. Stivender previously was scheduler and assistant to the chief of staff for Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.). Manucy previously was a staff assistant for Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.). … Nathalie Maréchal is now co-director of the Center for Democracy & Technology’s privacy and data project. She previously was policy director at Ranking Digital Rights.

BONUS BIRTHDAY: Ford’s Melissa Miller