Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) told a group of climate activists and energy executives he’s open to supporting revised Build Back Better legislation narrowly addressing three issues: climate change, prescription drug prices and deficit reduction.

Why it matters: Manchin’s private comments during a closed-door dinner Monday are a clear indication he’s serious about returning to the negotiating table, but for a much smaller version of President Biden's initial $3.5 trillion proposal, people familiar with the matter tell Axios' Hans Nichols.

• His comments at the closed-door dinner, hosted by the American Clean Power Association, a trade association for the renewable energy industry, are consistent with conversations Manchin's had with congressional colleagues.
• He's talked about a deal that includes roughly $500 billion for climate and $1 trillion in new revenue.
• But the senator isn't indicating any support for universal preschool or any of the other care-economy proposals that were included in Biden's initial "human infrastructure" package.
• And Manchin's insisting on reducing the deficit with at least half of the revenue from new corporate taxes, as well as the estimated savings from allowing Medicare to directly negotiate the cost of prescription drugs.

What they are saying: “Sen. Manchin is always willing to engage in discussions about the best way to move our country forward,” said Sam Runyon, the senator’s communications director.

• “He remains seriously concerned about the financial status of our country, and believes fighting inflation by restoring fairness to our tax system and paying down our national debt must be our first priority.”
• “He has made clear that we can protect energy independence and respond to climate change at the same time,” she said. “He continues to believe we can and must lower the cost of prescription drugs for working Americans.”
• Jason Ryan, the spokesperson for the American Clean Power Association, said, “We don’t comment on private political meetings."

Keep reading.

The president's stop in Poland tomorrow punctuates the country's unlikely turn from illiberal agitator to symbol of European warmth and solidarity, write Axios' Zachary Basu and Sarah Mucha.

The big picture: In October 2020, candidate Joe Biden described Poland in the same breath as Hungary and Belarus, while warning about the "rise of totalitarian regimes." Today, Poland's leading the West in calling for maximalist support for Ukraine as Russia works to crush its democracy.

• Poland's embrace of over 2 million Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion has frozen U.S. and EU concerns about Warsaw's democratic backsliding.
• Biden will meet with right-wing President Andrzej Duda as well as U.S. troops and potentially Ukrainian refugees when he travels to Warsaw to honor Poland's relief efforts.

Background: Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has been clashing with the EU since coming to power in 2015. That's when it began pursuing a conservative agenda Brussels claims has violated its rule-of-law standards.

• Amid the long-running dispute with Brussels, Poland's leaders found a friend in Donald Trump, who met with Duda at least five times during his presidency.
• Trump was more popular in Poland in 2020 than in any other European country — including Hungary, according to Pew research.

Flash forward: The EU has for months now withheld billions of dollars in pandemic recovery funds to protest Poland's crackdown on judicial independence.

That prompted the leader of PiS to accuse Germany in December of seeking to turn the EU into a "German Fourth Reich."

• The EU's judicial dispute with Poland hasn't ended, but European leaders are searching for a resolution that would unlock the funds and help Warsaw manage the flood of Ukrainian refugees coming across the border.

Keep reading.

👓 Go deeper: The president had a busy day in Brussels. Read here.

With Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation to the Supreme Court all but a foregone conclusion, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee used their time in the spotlight to play their party's greatest hits and stoke the culture wars, Axios' Andrew Solender writes.

Why it matters: As far as congressional hearings go, Supreme Court confirmations are prime time. They afford committee members a golden opportunity to push pet issues or sharpen their images before the national electorate — often while ignoring the actual nominee.

• Three senators who sat on the panel and questioned Supreme Court picks during the Trump administration — now-Vice President Kamala Harris and Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) — later mounted bids for the presidency.

Driving the news: The first three days of Jackson’s Supreme Court hearings were a medley of message-testing and political jockeying.

• Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) harshly scrutinized Jackson’s sentencing record, questioning her about child pornography and casting her as overly sympathetic to sex offenders amid a backlash against criminal justice reformers.
• Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) embraced an issue that's become central to GOP messaging. He hammered on critical race theory, holding up a book called “Antiracist Baby” and asking Jackson, “Do you agree … that babies are racist?”
• Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) asked Jackson to "provide a definition of the word ‘woman,'" as GOP governors grapple with legislation restricting transgender participation in youth sports.
• On the Democratic side, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) used some of his time to continue his years-long crusade against “dark money” in judicial politics.

Keep reading.

🥩 U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel are publicly making nice — after clashing late last year — while hailing a deal to export more beef to Japan. Tai praised Emanuel’s “fierce determination" in a statement, Andrew also reports.

❌ Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blocked an effort by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to quickly pass legislation revoking normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus. He criticized the bill's human rights sanctions as overly broad.

⚖️ Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a potential swing vote on Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination, told Axios she hasn’t tuned in to any of her confirmation hearings in part because of preparations for the late Rep. Don Young's (R-Alaska) memorial service. She did meet with Jackson one-on-one.

🗳️ During Day 4 of those hearings, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) pressed Alabama's Republican attorney general, Steve Marshall, about whether Biden is the "duly elected and lawfully serving" president. Marshall answered, "He is the president of this country."

🌿 The House Rules Committee meets Monday to prepare for a floor vote on legislation to federally decriminalize marijuana by removing it from the list of controlled substances and to expunge federal marijuana convictions.

🗣 Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) expounded on his claim that former President Trump asked him to ”remove” Biden, saying in a WIAT-TV interview that Trump “always brings up, ‘We’ve got to rescind the election.'"

President Biden walked with European Council President Charles Michel through one of the many futuristic buildings in Brussels housing NATO, the European Union and the European Commission.