Washington, DC

1. WH to Hill: Come back
2. The other unpaid screeners
3. Iran’s ‘more reasonable regime’
4. Labor eases digital-asset rule
5. Pretoria picks acting diplomat

Chip stocks ▼ as much as 10% on energy supply worries.

White House pressures Congress to return to Washington

The White House is promising a “big Easter dinner” for lawmakers if they return to Washington to hash out a deal to reopen the Department of Homeland Security. So far, no takers. Senate Republicans are floating a new solution that would prevent another shutdown anytime soon: “We’re taking this off the table. That’s enough of this with the Democrats. We’re going to fund DHS for the next three years,” Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., told reporters today. The bill would need only a party-line vote, but Speaker Mike Johnson said recently on Fox that putting DHS funding into such a bill would be a “very difficult task.” Another offramp: Senators could try to pass a bill by unanimous consent, but Democrats are ready to object to any bill they see as a step down from the one the Senate cleared last week.

— Nicholas Wu

Hackers hit Patel email while cyber defenses weakened

As TSA screeners begin to be paid today, another group of DHS employees who scan for threats will likely continue working without pay: employees at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is tasked with protecting critical infrastructure from cyberattacks. The ongoing shutdown has hamstrung CISA, according to its acting chief, who testified at a hearing last week that 60% of the agency had been furloughed, “creating a real opportunity for our adversaries to be able to take advantage of that gap in capability.” Two days later, hackers from the Iranian-aligned group Handala claimed credit for breaching FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal email. It was the latest in a string of successful hacks attributed to the group since the war began, including the most significant wartime cyberattack in American history, on medical device company Stryker.

— Lauren Morganbesser

Markets skeptical of Trump optimism

The White House is playing up diplomacy on Iran, with President Donald Trump saying this morning on Truth Social that the US is in “serious discussions with a new, and more reasonable regime,” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio joining George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America to sell progress on the war. Still, Trump renewed threats to destroy Iran’s energy and water infrastructure should leaders fail to immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Israel, meanwhile, executed further strikes. Markets reacted, with crude futures closing above $100 per barrel for the first time since 2022. Meanwhile, the bond market rallied on comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who suggested an interest rate hike is unlikely this year but indicated the war could deepen an economic downturn.

Trump admin finally floats retirement rule

After months of deliberations, the Labor Department at last proposed a rule today that would make it harder to sue employers who choose to add private-market, digital, and other alternative assets to their retirement plans. The rule, which comes as private credit falters, would not direct plan sponsors to select those alternative assets. Instead, “they’re trying to signal to the courts that the courts have been erring too much on the side of: Tie goes to the litigant,” Groom Law Group’s Kevin Walsh said. Asked how to reconcile that approach with the Trump administration’s pro-crypto stance, a Labor Department official told Semafor that the administration is “neither pro-crypto or anti-crypto; we are pro-fiduciary.” Mindset’s Kendra Isaacson, a former DOL official, agreed with that sentiment: “Let the fiduciaries fidush!”

— Eleanor Mueller

South Africa appoints acting head of US embassy

South Africa appointed a career diplomat as the acting head of its embassy in Washington amid heightened diplomatic tension between the countries, Semafor’s Tiisetso Motsoeneng reports. Pretoria named Thabo Thage as the de facto head of mission, a position that allows him to negotiate and sign agreements and reflects South Africa’s caution over naming a full ambassador. The country’s former US ambassador, Ebrahim Rasool, was expelled last year after he accused Trump of being a white supremacist. An attempt to fill the gap failed when the US rejected Mcebisi Jonas, a telecom executive, to serve as special envoy. Relations are badly strained after several spats, including South Africa’s genocide case against US ally Israel over its military operations in Gaza, Washington’s call for South Africa’s Black empowerment laws to be rolled back, and Trump’s repeated false claims of a “white genocide” in South Africa.

This April, global CEOs, officials, and industry leaders will join Semafor World Economy — the largest convening of its kind in the United States — to sit down with Semafor editors for conversations on the forces shaping global markets, emerging technologies, and geopolitics. See the full lineup of speakers, including Global Advisory Board members, Fortune 500 CEOs, and officials from the US and across the G20.

Iran

• Spain closed its airspace to flights involved in the conflict in Iran. — El Pais
• Two more UN peacekeepers were killed in southern Lebanon today. — NYT
• Pentagon officials haven’t held a press briefing on the war in a week and a half.

Economy

• Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the Fed can hold interest rates steady and look past oil shocks, within limits.

Health Care

• The number of Affordable Care Act insurance customers paying more than $6,000 a year doubled in 2026.

Agencies

• Stops on Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s cross-country tour celebrating American history have been canceled after parents, teachers, and students protested. — WaPo
• HUD is zeroing in on “mixed status” households, which include residents with and without legal status. — WaPo

Shutdown

• TSA said most of its workers were paid on Monday and lines appear to be getting shorter at airports.

Tech

• OpenAI’s now-shuttered Sora app became a liability for the company, eating up far too much computing power to make it a worthwhile investment ahead of a looming IPO.

World

• French authorities have detained five suspects in connection with a foiled bombing of Bank of America’s corporate office in Paris, a plot thought to be linked to the war in Iran. — Bloomberg
• The US embassy in Caracas has reopened, according to the State Department.

— Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaking about the Iran war on Good Morning America.

Laura McGann, editor

With help from Elana Schor, senior Washington editor, and Morgan Chalfant, Washington briefing editor

Graph Massara and Lauren Morganbesser, copy editors

Contact our reporters:

Burgess Everett, Eleanor Mueller, Shelby Talcott, Nicholas Wu, David Weigel