Axios

President Biden during an interview with ABC News on Tuesday told people from Central America to stay in their "town or city or community" instead of coming to the United States, adding, "I can say quite clearly: Don't come over."

Why it matters: The Biden administration is facing a worsening humanitarian crisis at the southern border, with the country on-pace to encounter more people at the U.S.-Mexico border "than we have in the last 20 years," according to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

In a long-shot bid to enact voting reform on a federal level, Senate Democrats will introduce their version of the For the People Act, a comprehensive voting reform and anti-corruption bill.

Why it matters: In the aftermath of the 2020 election, states across the U.S. are considering voting restrictions, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said Tuesday he expects Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to serve her full term, saying, "I have zero expectations the senator will be going anywhere,” AP reports.

Why it matters: Newsom said Monday he would appoint a Black woman to fill Feinstein's seat if the senator decided to retire because there are currently no Black women serving in the chamber since Kamala Harris was elected vice president. Former California Secretary of State Alex Padilla (D) was tapped to replace her.

Congress will receive an additional 8,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday to be equally divided for staffers in the House and Senate, Axios has learned from sources who are familiar.

Why it matters: Members of Congress were eligible for coronavirus inoculations as early as January, but just a small portion of their staff qualified to receive them at the time. Now, the circle is expanding, a move to restoring legislative operations to pre-pandemic norms.

President Biden will give the first formal press conference of his presidency on March 25, White House press secretary Jen Psaki informed pool reporters on Tuesday.

Why it matters: Biden has largely avoided taking direct questions from reporters while handling several major crises since taking office. Biden is slated to do a one-on-one interview with George Stephanopoulos this week.

Go deeper: White House plans to bypass national media

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Tuesday released a declassified report on foreign actors' attempts to influence and interfere in the 2020 election.

The big picture: The U.S. intelligence community found that Russia and Iran conducted influence operations aimed at affecting the outcome of the election, but that China did not. The report found no indications that foreign actors attempted to alter any technical aspect of the voting process.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) restored the voting rights of 69,000 former felons on Tuesday through executive action, the governor's office announced in a statement.

Why it matters: Northam's move to expand voting rights comes amidst a wider push across the country to restrict voting rights. As of mid-February, 43 states have introduced more than 250 bills that include voting restrictions, according to CNN.

The Senate voted 81-17 on Tuesday to confirm Isabel Guzman, currently the director of California’s Office of the Small Business Advocate, to lead the Small Business Administration.

Why it matters: The SBA will play a central role in helping small businesses recover from the economic crisis inflicted by the coronavirus, which has caused thousands of them to permanently close their doors.

The Customs and Border Protection agency confirmed to Congress today that four people arrested at the southern border since Oct. 1 match names on the FBI's Terrorist Screening Database, a congressional aide briefed on the correspondence told Axios.

Why it matters: Three of the people arrested were from Yemen and one was from Serbia. The four arrests are more than the number of similar people taken into custody during recent full fiscal years, according to the source. In fiscal 2018, six people from Yemen and Bangladesh were arrested.

Elliot Page, best known for his roles in blockbusters "Juno," "X-Men" and "Inception," is the first openly transgender man to feature on the cover of Time Magazine.

The big picture: Page, one of the most high-profile trans people in the world, has been vocal about trans rights and recently condemned several of a record number of state bills aimed at trans kids' ability to transition and play sports with cisgender children.

• A groundswell of Republicans — including former President Trump — have publicly supported banning trans kids from playing on sports teams and in competitions aligning with their gender identity.
• "Extremely influential people are spreading these myths and damaging rhetoric — every day you're seeing our existence debated," Page said. "Transgender people are so very real."

What he's saying: In a late February interview with Time's Katy Steinmetz, Page said it was difficult to talk about the days leading up to his disclosure in December that he is trans.

• When asked how he's feeling now, Page described the "feeling of true excitement and deep gratitude to have made it to this point in my life ... mixed with a lot of fear and anxiety."
• "What I was anticipating was a lot of support and love and a massive amount of hatred and transphobia," he said. "That's essentially what happened."

Page told Time that he was inspired by writers and actresses like Janet Mock and Laverne Cox — icons and trailblazers in the community — and P. Carl's memoir "Becoming a Man."

• Eventually, revelation replaced "shame and discomfort," he said. "I was finally able to embrace being transgender ... and letting myself fully become who I am."

Go deeper: Elliot Page Is Ready for This Moment (Time)

The Emancipator, one of the nation's first antislavery newspapers of the 19th century, is being revived as part of a new project to discuss and debate racial justice in the U.S. today.

Why it matters: The partnership between the Boston Globe Opinion and Boston University's Center for Antiracism Research comes amid pressure for new media outlets to cover issues around race and ethnicity.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) again warned Democrats on Tuesday that eliminating the legislative filibuster would "break the Senate" and turn the chamber into a "100-car pileup" where chaos reigns.

Why it matters: Democrats are under increasing pressure from progressives to set aside the filibuster for issues of exceptional importance, such as voting rights legislation that would counter the wave of voting restrictions being passed by Republicans at the state level.

The U.S. is on-pace to encounter more people at the U.S.-Mexico border "than we have in the last 20 years," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas wrote in a lengthy statement on Tuesday.

The big picture: The scale of the arrivals represents a budding crisis for President Biden. Mayorkas acknowledged that the arrival of the migrants, including unaccompanied children, at the Southwest border is "difficult," but added that the administration is "making progress and we are executing on our plan."

Racism-fueled violence against Asian Americans continues to spike, with women more than twice as likely to be targeted than men, according to a report from the reporting center Stop AAPI Hate published Tuesday.

Why it matters: Anti-Asian racism escalated after the pandemic began, with people blaming Asian Americans for COVID-19, which was first detected in China.

The Republican National Committee is planning an aggressive counterprogramming campaign as President Biden prepares to tour the country and promote his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, The Hill reports.

The state of play: While Biden embarks on a "Help is Here" tour to explain how the American Rescue Plan will affect everyday Americans, the RNC's rapid response team will offer real-time reactions, to be broadcast on television and radio at the same time as Biden's public appearances.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom committed on Monday night to appointing a Black woman to fill Sen. Dianne Feinstein's seat if the 87-year-old Democrat decides to retire before she's up for re-election in 2024.

Why it matters: There are currently no Black women serving in the U.S. Senate, after Newsom tapped former California Secretary of State Alex Padilla to fill Sen. Kamala Harris' seat when she was elected vice president.

Civitech, a public benefit corporation that builds data tools for progressive candidates and causes, has reached an agreement to acquire the data and technology from Alloy, the now-defunct progressive data startup that was backed by Silicon Valley mogul Reid Hoffman.

Why it matters: Alloy was created to help modernize the Democratic Party's data operation by taking the unprecedented step of creating its own voter file. But its efforts collided with those at the Democratic National Committee, which had been working to build its own data exchange since 2019.

All the muscles of the Democratic Party are engaged in selling President Biden's COVID-19 relief bill just days after it was signed, with Democrats treating the $1.9 trillion package like a candidate.

Why it matters: The efforts underscore how closely Biden himself — and the broader Democratic machine — have tied the popularity of his first major piece of legislation to the success and ultimate survival of his presidency.

Eight in 10 Americans think the federal minimum wage is too low and two-thirds support increasing it to $15 per hour, according to a poll from Amazon and survey producer Ipsos published Tuesday.

Why it matters: A raise in the minimum wage from the current $7.25 an hour was not included in the $1.9 trillion COVID relief package passed by Congress this month, despite progressives pushing to add a minimum wage provision to the bill. This poll suggests there's widespread nonpartisan support for an increase.

Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, on Monday warned the Biden administration to "refrain from causing a stink," according to the state-run KCNA news agency.

Why it matters: The North Korean regime's first comments about the Biden administration come as Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visit South Korea and Japan this week.

Retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who testified in the first impeachment hearing of former President Trump, said Monday he "should have sued those who amplified his campaign of defamation."

Driving the news: In an op-ed for Lawfare, titled "Can Litigation Help Deradicalize Right-Wing Media?," Vindman wrote: "After I testified about then-President Trump's misconduct on Ukraine ... Trump and his allies targeted me and my family for retribution."

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) on Monday pledged to bring on at least 13 Black members, following public backlash over the group's lack of diversity.

Why it matters: Hollywood has long struggled to embrace diversity, but last years' Black Lives Matters protests have forced the industry to reckon with its own shortcomings around race in a more meaningful way than ever before.

Jesuit priests pledged Monday to raise $100 million for the descendants of people enslaved by the Catholic order as part of a new racial reconciliation initiative in the U.S., the New York Times first reported.

Why it matters: It's one of the biggest moves by an institution to atone for slavery, and "the largest effort by the Roman Catholic Church to make amends for the buying, selling and enslavement of Black people," church officials and historians told the NYT.

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro on Monday appointed cardiologist Marcelo Queiroga as the new health minister, as the number of infections and deaths from COVID-19 continue to spike in the country, per Bloomberg.

Why it matters: Queiroga is Brazil's fourth health minister since the pandemic began. Intensive care units in 25 of Brazil's 26 state capitals are operating at capacity or close to it, and the numbers show no signs of slowing down.

President Biden opposes reopening a controversial child migrant shelter in Florida that's been run by a for-profit company, telling the federal agency overwhelmed with caring for migrant minors to find other options, people familiar with the matter tell Axios.

Why it matters: The president's personal intervention underscores the growing humanitarian crisis at the border, the facility's scandal-plagued past and Biden's own sensitivities around child detention practices.

Democrats think they have a test for whether they can work with Republicans on anything: it has to do with China.

What we're hearing: The White House is quietly supporting Sen. Chuck Schumer's forthcoming legislation to curb China's global influence to prove Democrats can still work with Republicans despite the GOP voting unanimously against the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.

Blue-state lawmakers are pressuring President Biden to cut some taxes — while he raises others — in the horse-trading for his next big package.

Why it matters: The cold math suggests Biden will be forced to sacrifice the size of his infrastructure ambitions or embrace even more deficit spending — and convince Congress to go along.

The Biden administration issued new internal guidance Monday saying it would reduce daily coronavirus testing for White House staff to once a week, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Now that a majority of officials working on the 18-acre complex have been vaccinated, the administration is relaxing some of its coronavirus restrictions — a step closer to normalcy.

Coca-Cola and Home Depot, two major corporations based in Georgia, expressed opposition to the state's push to restrict voting, the Washington Post reported Monday.

Why it matters: After the GOP lost in Georgia's Senate runoffs, Republican lawmakers moved quickly to introduce legislation that would make it harder to vote, baselessly citing voter fraud.

Security at the Capitol fortified in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection will soon be scaled back as there's now no "known, credible threat" against Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Monday.

Driving the news: Pelosi wrote to Democrats that following recommendations made Monday in a letter by the Acting House Sergeant at Arms and a Capitol security report "alterations to the temporary fencing around the Capitol will soon be made, and the National Guard presence will also begin to draw down."