©  Associated Press

Federal authorities are investigating a massive cellphone network outage that affected millions of customers for most of Thursday.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and FBI are looking into what happened to AT&T’s wireless network.

Service was mostly restored by Thursday afternoon, but at the peak, officials warned that people may not be able to reach emergency services like 911 on AT&T networks.

“We’re going to look at this really hard,” White House national security communications adviser John Kirby told reporters. “We’re going to work with industry to see what we can see we can find out, but right now, we’re being told AT&T has no reason to think that this was a cybersecurity incident.”

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), who heads the House Energy and Commerce Committee , said her team is working “to gain a complete understanding of what went wrong and what can be done to prevent future incidents like this from occurring.”

“As we learn more, Energy and Commerce will continue to encourage transparency and accountability for those affected and ensure that appropriate steps are taken to strengthen our communications networks, which are vital for nearly every aspect of our economy and daily lives,” she said in a statement to The Hill.

Welcome to Evening Report ! I’m Liz Crisp, catching you up from the afternoon and what’s coming tomorrow. Not on the list? Subscribe here.

• Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) leads Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Republican Kari Lake  in a hypothetical three-way race for Sinema’s seat, according to a new poll. 
  
  

• President Biden’s dog Commander bit Secret Service personnel at least 24 times before he was taken from the White House and placed at a new home, new documents show.
  
  
• Giant pandas could be heading back to the United States. The San Diego Zoo said Thursday it’s hoping to get new pandas from China.

© Getty Images

Fertility clinics are shutting down in Alabama after the state’s Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be deemed children.

Alabama Fertility Specialists and the Center for Reproductive Medicine both cited the court’s decision for the move. The ruling makes harm to embryos subject to the state’s child endangerment laws.

• The suit was brought on by patients whose frozen embryos were accidentally destroyed at the Center for Reproductive Medicine’s clinic in Mobile, Ala.
  
  
• The clinics have argued that the court’s ruling will make in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments more expensive and the storage of embryos more difficult. 

How political figures are responding: The ruling has prompted former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, and former Vice President Mike Pence to speak out about their respective families’ experiences with infertility.

“It is very important that women like me have the ability to have that blessing of a baby,” Haley told NPR.

Pence also has openly detailed his and his wive’s IVF journey to start their family.

“I fully support fertility treatments and I think they deserve the protection of the law,” Pence said in an interview with “Face the Nation” in 2022. “They gave us great comfort in those long and challenging years that we struggled with infertility in our marriage.”

It’s Black History Month, and this week’s edition of The Switch Up podcast from The Hill explores why stories of Black Americans are such an integral part of understanding U.S. history. Listen here.

© Greg Nash / The Hill

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is underway, and there’s no doubt who attendees are backing in the 2024 race as the event becomes essentially a rally for former President Trump‘s reelection bid.

Trump is scheduled to take the stage Saturday, but already his supporters have flocked to the annual gathering being held in National Harbor, Md., through the weekend.

More: CPAC rejected some media credentials for outlets that organizers deemed to “left-leaning” (The Hill)

AND: Check out the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack-themed pinball machine stealing the show. (The Hill)

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) says indicted FBI informant Alexander Smirnov — whose claims against the Bidens helped fuel the House GOP-led impeachment inquiry into the president — was not “an important part” of their investigation.

“At the end of the day, he wasn’t an important part of this investigation — because I didn’t even know who he was,” Comer said in a Newsmax interview this week. “All I knew was there was a 1023 [form] that alleged bribery.” (The Hill)

“Our aging candidates spark a valuable discussion on brain health,” via Dr. Saralyn Mark , geriatrician and former senior medical adviser to the White House.

“Ending affordable internet is a gut punch to US prosperity,” via Geoffrey Starks , Federal Communications Commission commissioner.

2 days until the South Carolina GOP primary.  

12 days until Super Tuesday.  

257 days until the general election.  

5:45 p.m.: President Biden is scheduled to take part in a campaign reception in Los Altos Hills, Calif.

You’re all caught up! Stay with TheHill.com for the latest and recommend this newsletter to others: TheHill.com/Evening. See you tomorrow!