In Today’s Times:
Having offered up plenty of unflattering critiques of his predecessor, President Obama has to find something nice to say about George W. Bush at the opening of the latter’s presidential library in Dallas on Thursday morning, Peter Baker writes. In the afternoon before heading back to Washington, the Obamas will travel to Waco, Tex., for a memorial service at Baylor University to pay tribute to the workers who died in an explosion at a fertilizer plant in nearby West, Tex.
Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia’s efforts to soften the Republican party’s image is not going terribly smoothly in the House, where Jonathan Weisman observes that legislation the Republican majority leader hoped would achieve his goal has been ignored, greeted with yawns or fought over in his caucus.
The automatic budget cuts imposed by Congress are forcing the Federal Aviation Administration to operate like a starving airline, the agency administrator told skeptical Republicans at a hearing on Wednesday, Matthew L. Wald reports.
With support from backers and critics alike, Janet L. Yellen, the vice chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, seems to be the most plausible successor to Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the central bank, whose term ends in January 2014, Binyamin Appelbaum writes. Other potential candidates for the job, which has been held only by men, include Timothy F. Geithner, Mr. Obama’s first Treasury secretary, and Lawrence H. Summers, the president’s former economic adviser.
Authorities searching for the person who sent ricin-laced letters to President Obama; Senator Roger Wicker, Republican of Mississippi; and a local judge have shifted their focus to a martial arts instructor, Campbell Robertson and Cynthia Howe report.
Around the Web:
Now that he is not running for re-election, Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, must decide what to do with the $4.8 million left in his campaign coffers, according to the Associated Press.
Happening in Washington:
Economic reports expected Thursday include weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m., followed at 10 a.m. by weekly mortgage rates.
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s agenda includes a meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan at the Naval Observatory at 8:30 a.m., then a meeting with gun safety advocates at the White House at 2 p.m.
Separate House Appropriations subcommittees will hear budget testimony from Jack Lew, the Treasury secretary; Kathleen Sebelius, the Health and Human Services secretary; and Joseph Szabo, the administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration. All hearings begin at 10 a.m.
Also at 10, a subpanel of the House Committee on Homeland Security will examine counterterrorism efforts aimed at preventing chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks on American soil.
A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, at a 10 a.m. hearing, will take up the topic of securing the nation’s prescription drug supply chain.
At 2:30 p.m., a subpanel of the House Committee on Ways and Means will hold a hearing focused on the Internal Revenue Service and the 2013 tax return filing season.
