And now, a message from Google. The spirit of innovation is deeply ingrained in America,

and Google is helping Americans innovate in ways both big and small. Central Texas Regional Mobility

Authority is using Google AI to create smarter tolling systems and improve traffic flow for Texans.

This is a new era of American Innovation. Find out more at G.com slash American Innovation. Good morning. I'm Anna Palmer. And I'm

Jake Sherman. And welcome to The Daily Punch. Brought to you by Punchable News. It's Monday, February 22nd, 2021.

Let's get into the mix.

Here are your Washington headlines of the day.

Number one, Congress is coming back to town.

We'll have a look at the latest on COVID relief.

Number two, we've got a look at the political pressure that each member of the congressional

leadership is feeling this week. And number three, what your things sit with near attendance

nomination for OMB? Spoiler alert, not great. All right, Jake, let's do this thing. Number one,

Congress is coming back to town. COVID relief is the top agenda priority.

That's right. COVID relief needs to need to start stepping on the gas pedal here if they want to meet Joe Biden's March 14th deadline.

That is looking less and less likely, although let's not count it out of possibility yet.

Now, the minimum wage is the big issue right now.

Bernie Sanders put out a statement Saturday saying that he was confident the Senate

parliamentarian would accept minimum wage as part of this package.

When you say you're confident about something like that in a statement,

it means you're usually not that confident about it and you're trying to ramp up the pressure

on the parliamentarian to do what you want. That's at least how I read it. And I would say,

frankly, that without the minimum wage, there's going to be some problems on Capitol Hill

...