• Government reopened: By a vote of 217-214, the House passed the Senate-modified funding package on Tuesday, which President Donald Trump quickly signed, thereby reopening the federal government that had been in a partial shutdown since Friday. The legislation passed with bipartisan support, as 42 lawmakers defected from their parties. A group of 21 Republicans rejected the legislation in objection to the removal of DHS funding from the original spending package, as well as wanting to include the SAVE Act. Meanwhile, 21 Democrats voted with the Republican majority to pass the funding package. Over the next two weeks, lawmakers will seek a compromise on DHS funding, with Democrats aiming to limit ICE’s immigration enforcement authority.

• Iranian drone destroyed: The Iranian regime agreed to engage in nuclear and missile talks with the U.S., with a meeting scheduled for Friday in Turkey. Yet Iran continues its provocations. On Tuesday, the USS Abraham Lincoln shot down an Iranian drone that was targeting the carrier, and an American-flagged ship was chased by an Iranian gunboat, which failed to catch it after a U.S. destroyer intervened. Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House in London, surmised that Tehran’s incongruent actions indicated significant disagreement within the Iranian government, observing, “When they are under attack, all political sides in the regime work together. When there is a mediation, they sabotage each other.” The question is how much patience President Trump has with the Iranian regime if it continues this aggressive behavior.

• Trump admin tries to keep families together: The Department of Health and Human Services announced this week that three drugs used to combat opioid abuse will now be subsidized for families where children are at risk of entering foster care. The HHS Administration for Children and Families announced that it is expanding access to buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone to stop the breakup of families. Using Title IV-E funding, states can now receive a 50% federal match on the cost of these drugs for families where untreated addiction may lead to the separation of children from their parents. This is just one step the administration is taking to address the opioid epidemic.

• Anti-ICE agitators set up checkpoint, border: Minnesota anti-ICE protesters are stopping out-of-state vehicles at checkpoints, demanding IDs, and individually clearing them for entry into a protected community. Astute readers may notice the striking similarity between this behavior and the existence of national borders. Leaving aside the blatant illegality of their actions, the irony is palpable. Protesters are so intent on protecting illegal immigrants in their communities that they’re enforcing secure borders and even building blockades similar to a border wall. The secure border appears to run from 32nd to 34th on Cedar Ave. in south Minneapolis. The Left’s ability to reinvent law and order from first principles is impressive.

• Jeanine Pirro perplexes: In an interview on Fox News, U.S. Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro made a significant Second Amendment faux pas: “I don’t care if you have a license in another district, and I don’t care if you’re a law-abiding gun owner somewhere else. You bring a gun into this district, count on going to jail.” Granted, Pirro was talking about how DC has gone three weeks without a homicide because authorities have gotten guns out of the hands of criminals. But that doesn’t excuse her statements regarding those who have a license to carry. DC has a concealed carry permit for non-residents, and Second Amendment rights don’t vanish upon entering the district. She attempted to walk it back, but if she is a “fellow gun owner,” she should stick to facts and not lump law-abiding citizens in with criminals.

• Trump bans DEI in foreign aid: The State Department, in keeping with President Trump’s order to eliminate DEI policies from the federal government, is implementing new rules that expand Ronald Reagan’s 1984 “Mexico City” policy, which bans U.S. federal funding of non-governmental organizations that “perform or actively promote abortion.” Every Republican administration has renewed the policy ever since, and the Trump administration is now broadening it to exclude funding for U.S.-based NGOs, international organizations, foreign governments, and foreign companies from receiving U.S. aid if they promote abortion or DEI initiatives. The State Department estimates that this policy change will initially affect roughly 2,500 organizations, though Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau expects “that many organizations that are current recipients of foreign assistance will come into compliance.”

• Project Vault: The Trump administration has announced Project Vault, a public-private partnership to establish the U.S. Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve similar to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This partnership has already secured $12 billion in funding, with a $10 billion loan coming from the Export-Import Bank and nearly $2 billion in private funding. Private partners, including General Motors, Stellantis, Boeing, and others, will commit to purchase a specified quantity of materials for the reserve at a set price and repurchase those minerals at the same price in the future. The U.S. already has a reserve of rare minerals for national defense, but this will establish a similar stockpile for private use. Investors will be able to draw on the stockpile so long as they replenish what they take. In the event of a severe supply-chain disruption, the entire stockpile will be made available.

• House GOP forms caucus against Sharia: A number of House Republicans concerned about the spread of Islam in America have formed a caucus with the goal of keeping Sharia law out of the country. Dubbed the Sharia Free America Caucus, it is led by Texas Reps. Keith Self and Chip Roy. Self warned of the spread of Sharia law, which is fundamentally antithetical to the authority of the Constitution and U.S. law. “Here’s what’s happening right now. In the Lone Star State, there are multiple Muslim-only housing developments that already exist or in the planning stages, including the Meadows, Epic City right there in my district,” Self noted. “The spread has gotten so serious that on March 3, a proposition to ban Sharia will appear on the Texas primary ballot, and I encourage all Texans to go to and vote for that proposition.”

• Jill Biden’s ex charged with murdering wife: Celebrity gossip — or in this case, political gossip — is always popular. That’s the reason Will Stevenson’s murder charge is national news. Will Stevenson of New Castle County, Delaware, was taken into custody Monday following a weeks-long investigation into the death of his wife, Linda. On December 28, police were called to the Stevenson home due to a domestic dispute, where they found Linda unresponsive. Ordinarily, spousal murder, while tragic, is not national news, except when the alleged murderer was formerly married to a woman who later became first lady. In 1970, Stevenson married Jill Jacobs. Five years later, they divorced. Two years after that, Jill married Joe Biden, with whom Stevenson said she had an affair.

Headlines

• Clintons to appear for Epstein depositions, Comer confirms (NY Post)

• Border czar Tom Homan says 700 federal agents will leave Minnesota (NY Post)

• Threat of new AI tools wipes $300 billion off software and data stocks (WSJ)

• Plastic surgeon group disavows transgender surgery for those under 19 (Washington Examiner)

• Bitter cold exposes the limits of Mamdani’s approach to homelessness (City Journal)

The Executive News Summary is compiled daily by Jordan Candler, Thomas Gallatin, Sterling Henry, and Sophie Starkova. For the archive, click here.