Biden will travel to Houston, Texas, on Friday with first lady Jill Biden in the wake of deadly winter storms that left millions without power and killed at least 17.

During his visit, the president will tour the Harris County Emergency Operations Center. Then the first lady will visit the Houston Food Bank to package food and water for the local community. After that, she and the president will meet with volunteers at the food bank. Biden will then visit a COVID-19 vaccination site, where he’ll deliver remarks.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki previewed the trip during a briefing on Thursday and noted that Biden would survey damage from the storm with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for the majority of the day. She also said that the trip was not a political one. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is also expected to meet Biden in Houston.

“He views it as an issue where he's eager to get relief to tap into all the resources in the federal government to make sure the people of Texas know we're thinking about them, we’re fighting for them, and we're going to continue working on this as they're recovering. There is plenty of time to have a policy discussion about better weatherization, better preparations," Psaki said. "And I'm sure that's one that will be had, but right now, we're focused on getting relief to the people in the state, getting updated briefings, tapping into all of the levers of federal government.”

Can you have a battle for a party if only one side is invited to the fight?

The Conservative Political Action Conference has long been a colorful if sometimes unreliable gauge of the state of the movement that powers the Republican Party. This year … not so much.

With the GOP divided about its future, the biggest gathering of conservatives in the early days of the Biden presidency gets underway in Orlando, Florida, on Friday as a tribute to all things Donald Trump -- up to and including rehashed and baseless complaints about the election.

Featured speakers include Donald Trump Jr., Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, Govs. Kristi Noem and Ron DeSantis, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Ambassador Richard Grenell and a wide range of pro-Trump House members and commentators. The former president himself, of course, speaks Sunday, in his first public speech since Jan. 20.

Not attending: Senators including Mitch McConnell, Ben Sasse or Mitt Romney; House members like Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger; former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley; former Vice President Mike Pence.

The theme of this year's CPAC is "America Uncanceled," though one speaker who had been booked was himself canceled for his extreme and anti-Semitic views.

But Trump and what he represents don't need to be "uncanceled" if they weren't canceled in the first place. It's hard to call it a comeback if the person and the movement in question never really left.

-ABC News Political Director Rick Klein

Biden spoke Thursday with King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia "to address the longstanding partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia," according to a readout from the White House.

The official readout of the call did not mention anything about the intelligence report on the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi or the crown prince.

"Together they discussed regional security, including the renewed diplomatic efforts led by the United Nations and the United States to end the war in Yemen, and the U.S. commitment to help Saudi Arabia defend its territory as it faces attacks from Iranian-aligned groups.

"The President noted positively the recent release of several Saudi-American activists and Ms. Loujain al-Hathloul from custody, and affirmed the importance the United States places on universal human rights and the rule of law. The President told King Salman he would work to make the bilateral relationship as strong and transparent as possible. The two leaders affirmed the historic nature of the relationship and agreed to work together on mutual issues of concern and interest," the readout said.

At the end of his remarks for the National Governors Association winter meeting, Biden answered "yes" to a question about whether it "was a good call."

-ABC News' Senior White House Correspondent Mary Bruce and Molly Nagle

Biden joined a meeting of the National Governor's Association on Thursday afternoon. During the meeting, the group's chair, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., who has been under fire for nursing home deaths in his state and is facing fresh details concerning a harassment allegation, said the nation's governors support the president's COVID-19 relief bill.

Biden touted his plan, which has bipartisan support outside of the Senate, as helping all Americans. The president noted that 400 mayors have called him in support of the bill.

"It's clear that even when the immediate crisis passes, there’s going to be more work to be done to help constituents recover," Biden said. "And my administration will be there every step of the way with you, because when people in this country need help, they're not Democrats, Republicans, they're all Americans and people who need work."

Cuomo also said governors stand behind Biden's forthcoming infrastructure bill, which he has not yet released but touted on the campaign trail.

One hundred and sixty chief executive officers sent an open letter to congressional leadership Wednesday, urging lawmakers to pass "immediate and large-scale federal legislation to address the health and economic crises brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic" on a bipartisan basis.

The letter asks Congress to "to authorize a stimulus and relief package along the lines of the Biden-Harris administration’s proposed American Rescue Plan," perhaps leaving some room for negotiation on what the final package will look like. But the letter makes clear that major business CEOs, including the heads of Morgan Stanley, Visa, United Airlines, BlackRock, Comcast and Google are pushing for relief on the scale of Biden's plan.

"The American Rescue Plan provides a framework for coordinated public-private efforts to overcome COVID-19 and to move forward with a new era of inclusive growth. The country’s business community is prepared to work with you to achieve these critical objectives," the letter says.

Just Tuesday, though, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, one of the few Senate Republicans who has shown willingness to buck his party, criticized the $1.9 trillion bill in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.

"The $1.9 trillion bill is a clunker. It would waste hundreds of billions of dollars, do nothing meaningful to get kids back to school, and enact policies that work against job creation. The Congressional Budget Office’s recent analysis of the plan found that more than a third of the proposed funding—$700 billion—wouldn’t be spent until 2022 or later, undermining the administration’s claim that the massive price tag is justified for urgent pandemic-related needs," Romney wrote.

Whether the pressure from big business will sway any Republicans in the Senate remains to be seen, but Wednesday morning's messaging from GOP lawmakers is pretty clear: They have no intentions of budging.

-ABC News' Sarah Kolinovsky