Axios

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) opened Sen. Markwayne Mullin's confirmation hearing with a remarkable challenge, daring the Homeland Security secretary nominee to "tell me to my face" why Paul deserved an assault that left him with broken ribs.

Why it matters: Mullin's hearing got off to a rocky start — and Paul said afterwards that he would vote against reporting Mullin's nomination out of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which he chairs.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) has questions about a $10 billion fee that TikTok's buyers reportedly are paying the U.S. Treasury Department, on top of what they spent to buy the actual business from China's ByteDance.

• But those involved are keeping silent.

The federal government is trying to clear a regulatory path for new types of vehicles that drive themselves and don't have a steering wheel or pedals.

Why it matters: Fully automated robotaxis don't need driver controls, but the law still requires them. Updating federal standards could determine who leads the global race in autonomous vehicle technology.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) told senators he took a "classified" trip to an undisclosed location in 2016 while serving in Congress.

Why it matters: It's Mullin's first acknowledgment that he was formally involved in a secret foreign assignment — presumably in a dangerous part of the world.

Wholesale prices — including for consumer staples like fresh vegetables — rose at a rapid clip in February.

Why it matters: It is a fresh warning for the Trump administration and the Federal Reserve. Price pressures were already building across the economy, even before the Iran war introduced new inflation risks.

New U.S. homebuyers spend a far higher share of their income on housing than existing homeowners — and that gap is growing, an analysis out this week finds.

Why it matters: There's a huge bipartisan push to make homeownership more affordable — but policy ideas often target existing homeowners, the ones least in need of help.

• Worse, some efforts to increase affordability — particularly the push to lower mortgage rates — can exacerbate the problem.

How it works: New homeowners almost always spend more of their income on housing. They're typically younger, earn less money and face higher home prices.

• But the share of income they're devoting to housing has spiked over the past four years, as the pandemic drove up home prices and then mortgage rates surged.

By the numbers: In 2024, the most recent year with available federal data, new homeowners — defined as those who bought a house within the past year — spent nearly 27% of their income on housing, according to the new analysis from the centrist Economic Innovation Group.

• That's close to the level last seen in the years before the housing bubble began to burst in 2007, when buyers with bad credit were taking out mortgages they couldn't afford.
• Existing homeowners, meanwhile, spent just 20% of their income on housing, near record lows.
• The gap between the two groups is the widest in at least 40 years.

Friction point: President Donald Trump and many lawmakers like to focus on mortgage rates as a way to make homes more affordable for new homeowners.

• "We got to get interest rates down even lower," Trump said at a Cabinet meeting in January. "To me, the biggest factor is interest rates for housing."
• The White House has touted the decline in rates over the past year — though they've come back up over the past two weeks, as the war has raised borrowing costs.

Between the lines: Mortgage rates are big and splashy, but they don't actually do much to make homes more affordable, EIG finds.

• Instead, when rates are low, more new buyers enter the market — and bid up prices.
• Low rates do benefit existing homeowners, who can refinance.
• "Rate cuts likely would help recent homeowners to refinance at lower rates, but it's unlikely that they would do much to lower the barrier to entry for new buyers," writes Jess Remington, a research analyst at EIG who links to similar research from the Dallas Fed.

Zoom in: When interest rates fell from 2019 to 2021, new homeowners' real monthly mortgage payments actually increased, the analysis notes.

• That's been the pattern since 1980, other research finds.

The big picture: Buying a house — once the American dream — has increasingly become a fantasy for many.

• There's remarkable bipartisan agreement that something needs to be done to bring down housing costs. Big housing affordability bills have now passed both the House and Senate — though have since stalled out, as Trump is focused on election legislation and the Iran war.
• Still, Trump has floated ideas outside of Congress — introducing 50-year mortgages, preventing investors from buying single-family homes and directing the purchase of $200 billion in mortgage bonds.
• Last week, he issued executive orders that would make it easier to build and finance homes.

The bottom line: Some of the policies that focus on building new supply could ultimately make homes less expensive — by addressing a housing shortage.

• But those policies will succeed on fairly long-time horizons.
• Mortgage rates move much faster than home builders ever could — don't expect anyone to stop talking about their benefits anytime soon.

After being blocked by election-year political considerations and now the courts, vaccine critics' most impactful fights may play out at the state level — at least until the midterm elections are over.

Why it matters: The "Make America Healthy Again" movement and its allies were already targeting state legislatures but those campaigns could take on new significance with much of the federal agenda now frozen.

President Trump's economic pressure on Cuba is exacerbating a widespread humanitarian crisis as the U.S. continually threatens to intervene in the Caribbean island.

The big picture: Despite surviving 60 years of U.S. economic pressure, Cuban officials claim Trump is escalating the crisis by threatening to tariff its oil suppliers and openly musing about regime change.

Daniel Biss defeated a crowded field in Tuesday's Democratic primary to represent Illinois' 9th District.

• Biss faces Republican John Elleson in November.

Flashback: U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky's retirement announcement last year opened the seat for the first time in more than 25 years, prompting 15 Democrats and four Republicans to enter the race.

Zoom in: Biss has been mayor of Evanston, the northern suburb that's home to Northwestern University, since 2021 and has also served as both a state Senator and state Representative.

• Schakowsky endorsed Biss, along with U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
• Biss' calls to abolish ICE became more fervent after a standoff in December with Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, as immigration officials made arrests in Evanston and nearby suburbs.

State of play: The district includes Rogers Park — one of Chicago's most diverse neighborhoods — and the affluent North Shore suburbs, home to what have long been known as "lakefront liberal" voters.

Israeli forces' killing of two top Iranian officials in separate strikes Tuesday marked a major blow to Tehran's leadership, which has been decimated during the Iran war.

The big picture: National security chief Ali Larijani and Basij paramilitary commander Gholamreza Soleimani are among dozens of Iranian officials killed during the war. Many died along with the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Feb. 28, the first day of U.S. and Israeli airstrikes.