Good morning, I'm Charlotte Freeland from the Washington Post, and this is the Daily

202 from Monday, February 22.

In today's news, the White House reiterates teacher vaccinations are not a prerequisite

for reopening schools, and Texas Senator Ted Cruz is trying to repair his public image

following an ill-time trip to Mexico.

But first, the big idea.

White House officials say President Biden is eager to visit Texas as it deals with ongoing

emergencies as the result of last week's winter storm.

Officials say Biden could head down there as soon as this week.

The post-Polina Faralsie, Amy B. Wang and Peter Warwisky report that millions of Texans

are grappling with water restrictions, spiking energy bills, and other crises in the wake

of the storm.

58 deaths have been linked to the Arctic outbreak last week, and the vast majority of those

have occurred in Texas.

As of noon Sunday, more than 11 million Texans were under orders to boil tap water before

drinking it.

According to figures from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, another 120,000 remained

without water, because public water utilities were crippled in the cold.

Experts are blaming the state's lightly regulated energy markets for the extraordinarily

high utility bills customers are seeing, many of which spiked when the storm caused

power shortages.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki says Biden is very mindful of the fact that it's

...