Reports about the contents of President Joe Biden’s American Families Plan (AFP) have been circulating for weeks, but the President provided details in his address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night. Among other provisions, the AFP would make a “generation-defining investment in rural America.”

While the novel fintech charter may never actually be granted, the concept ironically may usher in a rash of neobanks under full national charters, like Varo Bank. In a way that may end up creating a more level playing field.

The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions held the first of what Chairman Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) said would be multiple hearings yesterday to discuss whether and how fintech companies and other businesses that offer credit should serve customers through nontraditional charters.

It was a busy week in Washington. A really busy week. The President had his first press conference. The Secretary of the Treasury and the Chairman of the Fed testified twice, on opposite sides of Capitol Hill. The Secretary of Transportation spent more than five hours talking to a House committee about infrastructure. Immigrants gathered at the border, North Korea tested some missiles, another COVID vaccine faced approval delays.

If you wake up at 3:47 Eastern Standard Time tomorrow, you can welcome the vernal equinox in person. The NCAA basketball tournament has started, baseball is only two weeks away, and we have (almost) made it through another winter. Congratulations.

The House of Representatives will vote tonight on President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package. The House bill includes language to raise the federal minimum wage to $15/hour by 2025, but Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled yesterday that including that language in the Senate bill would violate the Senate rule that protects the bill from filibuster.

It was not exactly a snow—er, slow news week, and we send our warmest wishes to friends in Texas who are still waiting for power, water, and a break in the weather. But the most exciting news of the week was the Perseverance Mars Rover landing, 140 million miles away. The average temperature on the surface of Mars is about -80F, just for comparison.

You’d think something called “vote-a-rama” would be more fun. The Senate voted to proceed on S.Con.Res. 5, a resolution that lays out the budget framework for President Biden’s $1.9 billion COVID relief package, on Tuesday, and took its final vote on the resolution after 5:00 this morning.

We feel a baseball-sized hole in the world today. His career lasted 23 years, his record lasted 30 years, but his legend lives forever. We raise our caps to Henry Aaron, Hammerin’ Hank, who retired with 755 home runs and a lifetime batting average of .305, o never got that much attention until people realized he was within striking distance of Babe Ruth’s home-run record. His life of quiet, consistent excellence, often in the face of race-based hatred, will be a model for generations.

The relentless pace of events over the past year has made it hard to stop and note individual losses as they’ve happened. But we would be remiss if we didn’t pay our respects to our dear friend and mentor Richard Bates, Disney’s longtime man in Washington. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this office wouldn’t exist if not for Richard.

You should already have received our summary of the massive bill Congress passed on Monday night: $900 billion in COVID-19 relief, $1.4 trillion to fund government operations for FY 2021, and dozens of unrelated authorizations added to a must-pass piece of legislation.