Nov. 16, 2021, 7:28 p.m. ET

Political Briefing

Biden signs infrastructure bill, promoting benefits for Americans.

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Some of the first bursts of spending will go toward areas that Mr. Biden prioritized in negotiations, like tens of billions of dollars to improve access to broadband internet and to replace hazardous lead drinking pipes nationwide.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Biden signed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill into law on Monday afternoon, a bipartisan victory that will pour billions into the nation’s roads, ports and power lines.

While the bill stopped short of realizing his full-scale ambitions for overhauling America’s transportation and energy systems, Mr. Biden pointed to it as evidence that lawmakers could work across party lines to solve problems in Washington.

He also said it would better position the United States to compete against China and other nations vying for dominance of 21st century emerging industries.

Hours before a virtual summit with President Xi Jinping of China, whose infrastructure initiatives have helped vault China to global leadership in advanced manufacturing and other areas, Mr. Biden said the bill showed democratic governments can deliver for their citizens.

“Let’s remember what we’ve got done for the American people when we do come together,” Mr. Biden said, celebrating the bill on the South Lawn of the White House. “I truly believe that 50 years from now, historians are going to look back at this moment and say, that’s the moment America began to win the competition of the 21st century.”

The bill Mr. Biden signed will not address the nation’s entire backlog of needed infrastructure investments, and it is not as ambitious as Mr. Biden’s initial $2.3 trillion proposal. The compromises that were necessary to win over a large group of Senate Republicans pared back the president’s ambitions for investing in “human infrastructure” like home health care and fortifying the nation’s physical infrastructure to fight and adapt to climate change.

Still, administration officials and a wide range of outside economists and business groups largely agree that the package is the most important step in a generation toward upgrading critical infrastructure — and that it could soon begin to pay dividends for a wide range of businesses and people, from electric vehicle manufacturers to rural web surfers.

Some of the first bursts of spending will go toward areas that Mr. Biden prioritized in negotiations, such as tens of billions of dollars to improve access to broadband internet and to replace hazardous lead drinking pipes. Spending has already been announced to help clear backlogs at the nation’s ports, which are contributing to shipping delays and price increases as the United States sees a pandemic surge in demand for consumer goods, many of which are imported.

The infrastructure spending will not jolt the American economy like a traditional economic stimulus plan, nor is it meant to. Officials say the administration will focus as much on “shovel-worthy” projects — meaning those that make the most of federal dollars — as they will on “shovel-ready” ones that would dump money into the economy more quickly. The package was designed to deliver money over several years, in part to avoid fueling more price increases across an economy that is experiencing its highest inflation rate in decades.

Mr. Biden and his advisers say they expect the package to deliver a variety of benefits that will power economic growth over time, including leaner supply chains, faster and more equitably distributed internet access and improved educational outcomes for children who will no longer be exposed to water-based lead that stunts brain development.

It also features tens of billions each for rebuilding roads and bridges, upgrading freight and passenger rail systems and cleaning up environmental pollution, all of which could help boost the productivity of the American economy.

Even before Mr. Biden signed the law, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that the state would use its portion of the money to avoid price and service changes to New York City’s subway, buses and two regional commuter rails.

“This is not designed to be stimulus,” Cecilia Rouse, who chairs the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said in an interview. “It’s designed to be the most strategic, effective investments so that we can continue to compete against China and other countries that are making bigger investments in their infrastructure.”

“We will see investments starting next year,” she added, “beginning with our ports, and beginning with other areas where we know we are far behind.”

The victory comes at a precarious political moment for Mr. Biden. His poll numbers have dropped amid rising inflation, which has sent prices for food, gas and household items soaring. He is struggling to complete the next part of his domestic policy agenda, a $1.85 trillion collection of tax cuts and spending programs focused on climate change, early childhood and a wide range of social policy initiatives.

On Tuesday, Mr. Biden will fly to New Hampshire to visit a bridge in need of repair as he tries to convince an increasingly uneasy American public that the infrastructure bill will lead to tangible improvements in their lives.

Then he will head to a General Motors plant in Detroit on Wednesday, to highlight funding aimed at building as many as 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations and improving the nation’s electric grids. The spending on electric vehicles in the bill is much lower than Mr. Biden initially proposed, but administration officials say it will accelerate a shift to lower-emission cars and trucks.

“With the combination of this investment and where we know the industry is going,” said Brian Deese, who heads Mr. Biden’s National Economic Council, “we believe this will be the beginning of a real transformation in our vehicle infrastructure.”

The legislation was the product of intense negotiations spanning much of the first year of Mr. Biden’s presidency, and of the back-slapping, coalition-building politics the president has relished in a government career stretching back to the 1970s. Mr. Biden brokered agreements first with Senate Republicans, 18 of whom ultimately voted for the bill, and then with progressive Democrats in the House, who held up its final passage in order to raise pressure on centrists in Mr. Biden’s party to support the larger spending bill.

As Mr. Biden and other speakers noted on Monday, previous presidents had tried and failed to broker big-spending infrastructure deals. Under President Donald J. Trump, “infrastructure week” became a running joke, as administration officials frequently promised to focus on the issue only to be derailed by a rolling series of scandals. Mr. Trump’s team never made a serious push for an infrastructure bill in Congress, choosing instead to focus on a large tax cut that passed in 2017.

Senator Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican who led his party’s side in the infrastructure talks, credited Mr. Trump on Monday for elevating the issue among Republicans. Mr. Biden made no mention of that, instead using the moment to talk about how Washington can overcome partisan wrangling when there is agreement on policy.

While the package is smaller than what Mr. Biden originally proposed, about $550 billion of the bill represents an increase over current spending levels. Researchers at the Brookings Institution estimate that the money will increase federal infrastructure spending as a share of the economy by half over the next five years, putting it nearly on par with the infrastructure provisions of the New Deal under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. If Mr. Biden’s $1.85 trillion spending bill — which includes more money to combat climate change — also passes, they estimate the increased infrastructure spending will eclipse the New Deal.

That increase will challenge the government’s ability to spend money on time and effectively. On Sunday, Mr. Biden appointed Mitch Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans, to oversee implementation of the infrastructure bill.

“Implementing a historic bill like this will test all of our management facilities,” said Adie Tomer, who leads infrastructure work at Brookings’ Metropolitan Policy Program. The challenges, he said, include “hiring federal, state, and local officials to direct programming; finding enough skilled tradespeople to execute the work; and securing equipment and materials during a major supply chain crunch.”

Liberal economists fault the package for not spending enough, particularly on climate, turning up the pressure on Mr. Biden and congressional Democrats to pass the social policy bill, which is moving through a process that would allow party leaders to pass the bill with no Republican votes.

“Overall, the bill is a step in the right direction,” said Mark Paul, an economist at the New College of Florida. “But we need far, far more investment in infrastructure — from the care economy to the green economy — if we are to build a strong and resilient economy for the 21st century.”

Lawmakers are expected to take up that larger spending bill later this week, though divisions remain between progressive Democrats and their moderate colleagues, which has complicated the president’s attempt to pass a bill along party lines.

The centrists are waiting for a congressional scorekeeper to rule on whether the bill will add to the federal budget deficit over the next 10 years. A critical holdout, Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, has demanded that the bill be fully paid for and not add to the deficit; he has pushed to delay the bill for fear of exacerbating inflation.

Here’s what’s in the infrastructure bill that Biden signed today.

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The infrastructure measure includes $66 billion to invest in Amtrak and fund new rail lines and upgrades to existing ones.Credit...Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times

Federal and state officials have identified priority projects that have been put off for years and may now move ahead as a result of the $1 trillion infrastructure bill that President Biden signed into law on Monday, such as repairing hundreds of aging bridges and building dozens of new or extended rail lines.

The bill also funds a number of other broad initiatives such as expanding broadband internet in rural corners of the country and cleaning up heavily polluted Superfund sites. In total, the measure contains $550 billion in new funds to be spread around different areas of need. Here are some of the areas covered.

  • $73 billion for the electricity grid.
    Upgrades to the country’s power systems that, among other things, will help the grid carry renewable energy.

  • $66 billion for rail.
    A significant investment in Amtrak, which has a major maintenance backlog, as well as funding for new rail lines and upgrades to existing ones.

  • $65 billion for broadband.
    Funding to provide high-speed internet access to hard-to-reach populations, including Native American communities.

  • $47 billion for climate resiliency.
    New funding aimed at combating wildfires and preparing coastal regions for more frequent hurricanes and flooding.

  • $21 billion for environmental projects.
    Increased funds for cleaning up abandoned mines, contaminated waterways and other polluted sites overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency.

  • $15 billion for removing lead service lines.
    Modernizing water systems to address contaminated drinking water that has affected multiple large population centers.

  • $7.5 billion for electric vehicles.
    Increasing the availability of charging stations across the country, which is part of Mr. Biden’s pledge to build 500,000 stations nationwide.

  • $2 billion for underserved rural areas.
    A grant program aimed at expanding transportation projects in rural areas.

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White House announces a task force to oversee infrastructure spending.

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Mitch Landrieu was appointed by President Biden to manage the infrastructure spending. He and Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council, will lead a task force monitoring infrastructure spending.Credit...Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press

Hours before President Biden signed the $1 trillion infrastructure package into law, the White House announced a new task force to track how the program was implemented.

The bill is the biggest federal investment in the nation’s infrastructure in more than a decade and includes billions of dollars to upgrade the nation’s aging roads, bridges, pipes and public transit systems.

The task force’s priorities include spending public funds “efficiently,” increasing the nation’s economic competitiveness and creating “good-paying” jobs for millions of Americans by coordinating with state and local governments, according to a White House statement.

The task force will be led by Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council, and Mitch Landrieu, the newly named infrastructure coordinator. The Biden administration announced on Sunday night that Mr. Landrieu, a former mayor of New Orleans and former lieutenant governor of Louisiana, would manage the infrastructure spending.

Other members of the group include: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Labor Secretary Martin J. Walsh and Office of Personnel Management Director Kiran Ahuja.

Advancing racial equity and climate change action will be a priority for the group. Some of the spending will go toward the Justice40 Initiative, which aims to deliver at least 40 percent of the overall benefits from federal investments in climate and clean energy to disadvantaged communities. It will also prioritize building “resilient infrastructure” that can withstand and combat the effects of climate change, according to the statement.

The Office of Management and Budget, the Domestic Policy Council and the Climate Policy Office will also sit on the task force, according to the statement.

Biden’s reliance on I.R.S. enforcement to pay for $1.85 trillion bill hits a snag.

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The Congressional Budget Office is expected to show that the social and climate policy package could raise less than $200 billion over 10 years.Credit...Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Biden’s pledge to fully pay for his $1.85 trillion social policy and climate spending package depends in large part on having a beefed-up Internal Revenue Service crack down on tax evaders, which the White House says will raise hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue.

But the director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said on Monday that the I.R.S. proposal would yield far less than what the White House was counting on to help pay for its bill — about $120 billion over a decade versus the $400 billion that the administration is counting on.

A formal tally is expected to be released on Friday, but the projection by Phillip Swagel, who heads the budget office, could pose another setback for Mr. Biden’s domestic policy legislation, which is already facing steep hurdles in the House and Senate.

The White House has begun bracing lawmakers for a disappointing estimate from the budget office, which is likely to find that the cost of the overall package will not be fully paid for with new tax revenue over the coming decade. Senior administration officials are urging lawmakers to disregard the budget office assessment, saying it is being overly conservative in its calculations, failing to properly credit the return on investment of additional I.R.S. resources and overlooking the deterrent effects that a more aggressive tax collection agency would have on tax cheats.

“In this one case, I think we’ve made a very strong empirical case for C.B.O. not having an accurate score,” Ben Harris, Treasury’s assistant secretary for economic policy, said in an interview. “The question is would they rather go with C.B.O. knowing C.B.O. is wrong, or would they want to target the best information they could possibly have?”

The C.B.O. tends to believe that the tax collection prowess of more enforcement agents will wane over time, while the White House assumes that taxpayers will become more compliant with the I.R.S. when they see tax dodgers facing consequences.

Such estimates are crucial to Mr. Biden’s ability to get the next leg of his agenda through Congress. Lawmakers have to rely on the budget office’s so-called score, which estimates whether the spending will add to the federal budget deficit over the next 10 years.

A disappointing assessment that shows the bill adding to the deficit could prove problematic. A group of moderate Democrats in the House have said they want to see an assessment from the budget office before moving forward with the legislation. And some lawmakers have expressed concerns about whether the bill is fiscally responsible, with Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, a key swing vote, expressing concern that the package could add to the national debt and stoke further inflation.

Because Democrats are using a budget procedure called reconciliation to pass the bill with a simple majority, they cannot afford to lose a single vote in the Senate and no more than three votes in the House.

The administration’s ability to raise taxes to pay for the spending has already run into resistance. Mr. Manchin and other moderate Democrats have opposed efforts to sharply raise taxes on corporations and the wealthiest Americans. That has left the Biden administration increasingly reliant on capturing uncollected tax revenue from the $7 trillion “tax gap” to pay for a sweeping expansion of child care, health and climate initiatives.

The proposal to give the I.R.S. an additional $80 billion over a decade has drawn fierce resistance from Republicans, right-leaning advocacy groups and banks, which have warned that an empowered tax collection agency will be weaponized against conservatives and target ordinary taxpayers.

The Biden administration has insisted that audit rates for people earning less than $400,000 per year would not rise, but that a large expansion of the nation’s social safety net could be funded just by collecting tax revenue that is already owed to the government.

The big question is: How much money is there for the taking?

A preliminary assessment by the budget office this year suggested that the administration was being overly optimistic and that those who had avoided paying taxes in the past would adjust their activities to continue evading the I.R.S.

On Monday, Mr. Swagel suggested that the Biden administration was betting too heavily on the idea that more aggressive auditing would deter rich people and corporations from finding ways to avoid paying taxes. He said such groups could take even more aggressive measures to keep their tax bills low, making it harder for the federal government to collect as much tax revenue as anticipates through better enforcement of the tax code.

“The research literature on deterrence is very mixed,” Mr. Swagel said, suggesting that the Biden administration was taking a more optimistic view.

Mr. Harris described the discrepancy as a methodological shortcoming. He said it was “patently absurd” that bolstering the enforcement capacity of the I.R.S., which has been depleted for years, would not compel taxpayers to be more compliant. The C.B.O. also predicts that the “return on investment” of giving the I.R.S. more money will decline over time, while Treasury disagrees.

The C.B.O. has been releasing its assessments of the House Democrats’ legislation in parts and has been racing to get an overall number to lawmakers ahead of a possible vote this month. Most of the estimates are expected to be in line with White House projections, but the I.R.S. measure is likely to be an outlier.

The I.R.S. has for years been a favorite target of Republicans, who have accused the agency of political bias and worked to starve it of funding. From 2010 to 2020, funding for the I.R.S. declined by about a fifth and its enforcement ranks fell by 30 percent, making it difficult to pursue audits and legal fights against well-financed tax evaders.

In recent weeks, Republicans in Congress have expressed growing alarm about the prospect of an empowered I.R.S.

“The I.R.S. will double in size,” Representative Mike Kelly, Republican of Pennsylvania, said last month. “It will be more involved in the day-to-day lives of every American. And the result will be an invasion of privacy and the heavy hand of the government squeezing out smaller, more local businesses.”

The Biden administration believes that doubling the enforcement staff at the I.R.S. will go a long way toward combating tax dodgers.

Charles P. Rettig, the I.R.S. commissioner, who was picked for the job by former President Donald J. Trump, said last week that the agency was long overdue for a financial infusion. He said the agency had fewer auditors than at any time since World War II.

“If given the resources we need, we will be able to make a sizable dent in noncompliance over several years,” Mr. Rettig wrote in a Washington Post opinion article. “A properly funded and trained work force will also have a significant deterrent effect on cheating.”

A separate proposal that would also have required banks to report more information about the finances of their customers to the I.R.S. has so far been left out of the legislation amid backlash over privacy concerns. The Biden administration is still pushing for a more narrow version of that proposal to be included in a final bill.

Douglas Elmendorf, who directed the C.B.O. from 2009 to 2015, said estimating the returns on additional I.R.S. enforcement was challenging because large funding infusions to the agency had little precedent and it was difficult to quantify the “indirect effects” of more auditors. He said lawmakers should take that into account when setting policy.

“I think Congress should always look beyond the budget estimate when deciding what to do about legislation,” Mr. Elmendorf said.

With slim majorities in the House and Senate, Democrats could need to find other ways to pay for their plans if they are not ready to rely on the I.R.S.

John Koskinen, the I.R.S. commissioner in the Obama and Trump administrations, said it was unfortunate that the proposals to fund the agency became so politicized. He suggested it was not so far-fetched that an agency that already collected more than $3 trillion a year could capture another $40 billion annually if it was properly staffed and modernized.

“When you underfund the I.R.S., it’s just a tax cut for tax cheats,” Mr. Koskinen said.

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Steve Bannon turns himself in on contempt of Congress charges.

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Bannon Surrenders to Authorities

Stephen K. Bannon, a former aide to Donald Trump, turned himself in at the F.B.I.’s Washington field office, three days after he was indicted on contempt of Congress charges after refusing to provide information to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.

“Back up, please, back up. Everybody back up, everybody get back.” “Mr. Bannon, any comment for the cameras over here? Any comment?” “Any thoughts, Mr. Bannon?” “Mr. Bannon, any comment on this?” “Excuse me.” “How are you feeling today, Mr. Bannon?” “Mr. Bannon, what are your plans now ahead of this?” Thank you, thank you everybody move back.” “Thanks guys, appreciate it.”

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Stephen K. Bannon, a former aide to Donald Trump, turned himself in at the F.B.I.’s Washington field office, three days after he was indicted on contempt of Congress charges after refusing to provide information to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.CreditCredit...Al Drago for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Stephen K. Bannon, who served as a senior aide to President Donald J. Trump, surrendered to authorities and appeared in federal court on Monday, three days after he was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to provide information to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Mr. Bannon’s formal booking and first court appearance in the case — and his promise to fight back aggressively against what he characterized as a political prosecution — marked an escalation in the clash between Mr. Trump’s allies and the committee, which has issued scores of subpoenas seeking testimony and documents that could help it assemble a definitive account of the attack and what led to it.

The charges against Mr. Bannon served as a warning to those who choose to defy the committee’s requests for information. But Mr. Bannon also showed that he intends to use the attention on the criminal case to push his own views to a broad audience.

Before entering the F.B.I.’s Washington field office, where he surrendered at around 9:30 a.m., and after leaving court later that afternoon, Mr. Bannon made statements that falsely implied that Mr. Trump had won the 2020 election. He told his supporters to remain focused on taking on “the illegitimate Biden regime.”

“This is going to be the misdemeanor from hell,” Mr. Bannon said after he emerged from his initial court appearance before a federal magistrate, Judge Robin M. Meriweather. Trailed by a video crew promoting his own media operation, and swarmed by reporters and photographers, he said he intended to use the legal process to attack Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Biden.

“We’re going to go on the offense on this,” he told reporters outside the courthouse, saying he was fighting for freedom of speech and liberty and assailing the prosecution as partisan.

“Every progressive, every liberal in this country that likes freedom of speech and liberty, OK, should be fighting for this case,” he said, even though the charges against him are not related to the First Amendment.

Mr. Bannon, 67, declined last month to comply with subpoenas from the House select committee seeking testimony and documents from him. The House then voted to hold him in criminal contempt of Congress and referred the matter to the Justice Department.

Mr. Trump has directed his former aides and advisers to invoke immunity and refrain from turning over documents that might be protected under executive privilege.

After the referral from the House in Mr. Bannon’s case, F.B.I. agents in the Washington field office investigated the matter. Career prosecutors in the public integrity unit of the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington determined that it would be appropriate to charge Mr. Bannon with two counts of contempt, and the Justice Department announced on Friday that a federal grand jury had indicted him on those charges.

One contempt count is related to Mr. Bannon’s refusal to appear for a deposition, and the other is for his refusal to produce documents for the committee. Each count carries a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of one year in jail, and a fine of between $100 and $100,000.

Mr. Bannon did not enter a plea when he made his initial appearance before Judge Meriweather on Monday. He was released on personal recognizance pending his next hearing on Thursday before Judge Carl J. Nichols of the Federal District Court in Washington.

The committee issued subpoenas in September to Mr. Bannon and several others who had ties to the Trump White House, and it has since issued scores of subpoenas to others with connections to the former president.

In a report recommending that the House find Mr. Bannon in contempt, the committee repeatedly cited comments Mr. Bannon made on his radio show on Jan. 5 — when he said “all hell is going to break loose tomorrow” — as evidence that “he had some foreknowledge about extreme events that would occur the next day.”

Investigators have also pointed to a conversation Mr. Bannon had with Mr. Trump on Dec. 30 in which he urged him to focus his efforts on Jan. 6. Mr. Bannon also was present at a meeting at the Willard Hotel in Washington on Jan. 5 when plans were discussed to try to overturn the results of the election the next day, the committee has said.

While many of those who received subpoenas have sought to work with the committee to some degree, Mr. Bannon claimed that his conversations with Mr. Trump were covered by executive privilege. Mr. Bannon made that claim even though he had not worked in the White House for years at the time of the Jan. 6 riot.

The indictment of Mr. Bannon also raised questions about similar potential criminal exposure for Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s former chief of staff.

Before the Justice Department announced the indictment of Mr. Bannon, Mr. Meadows, a former House member from North Carolina, failed to meet a deadline on Friday for complying with the House committee’s request for information.

The leaders of the House committee, Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi, and Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming, have said they will now consider pursuing contempt charges against Mr. Meadows.

Pat Leahy, longest-serving member of Senate, will not run again.

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Senator Patrick J. Leahy with his wife, Marcelle, on Monday in the same room of the Vermont State House where he launched his first run for Senate in the 1974 election.Credit...John Tully for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and the chamber’s longest-serving member, announced on Monday that he would retire at the end of his term rather than seek re-election in 2022, closing out nearly half a century of service in Congress.

Mr. Leahy, 81, who was elected in 1974 at age 34 after working as a prosecutor, announced his decision at a news conference at the Vermont State House in Montpelier.

“It is time to put down the gavel — it is time to pass the torch to the next Vermonter,” Mr. Leahy said, speaking in the same room where he announced his first campaign for the Senate. “It is time to come home.”

Mr. Leahy’s departure is unlikely to alter the partisan makeup of the Senate given that Vermont is a solidly Democratic state; President Biden won with 65 percent of the vote there last year. But it will rob the chamber of an institutional figure who has come to embody its traditions and the comity that defined it in a bygone era.

“It is hard to imagine the United States Senate without Patrick Leahy,” said Representative Peter Welch, the lone Vermont Democrat in the House, who is widely seen as a possible successor to the senator. “No one has served Vermont so faithfully, so constantly, so honestly and so fiercely as Patrick.”

The only sitting senator who served during President Gerald R. Ford’s term, Mr. Leahy is the first and only registered Democrat to be elected to represent Vermont in the Senate. He recently became the fourth longest-serving senator in American history, and finishing his term at the beginning of 2023 will make him the third longest-serving.

Mr. Leahy serves as president pro tempore of the Senate, a role reserved for the majority party’s most senior member that puts him third in line to the presidency. He is also the chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, which oversees government funding.

That seniority meant that Mr. Leahy played a unique role in the second impeachment of former President Donald J. Trump. After fleeing the Senate chamber as rioters stormed the building during the certification of Mr. Biden’s victory, Mr. Leahy both presided over the trial and served as a juror, ultimately voting to convict Mr. Trump.

In his news conference, Mr. Leahy reflected on the granular legislative work of more than four decades in the Senate. He spoke about the bills he shepherded through to support forestland and farmland in Vermont, increase nutrition assistance across the country and help the victims of the Vietnam War.

And he spoke about the legislation and the judicial appointments — including every sitting member of the Supreme Court — that he oversaw as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and as the panel’s chairman. Mr. Leahy also gained prominence for his push to curtail domestic surveillance after the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes — work that led to him being targeted in the anthrax attacks on Capitol Hill.

“Representing you in Washington is the greatest honor,” he said on Monday. “I’m humbled, and always will be, by your support. I’m confident in what the future holds.”

“It has been such a great part of our lives,” he concluded, standing beside his wife, Marcelle, who could be seen dabbing her eyes as supporters applauded. His office circulated his remarks announcing the “decision he and Marcelle have made about 2022.”

In a later interview, he described the walks through the fields and woods near their home that helped lead the pair to conclude “this was the right time.”

“We want more time to be in Vermont, want more time with family,” Mr. Leahy said. His long-lasting tenure, he added, “was not my idea when I first ran,” but ultimately “was a pretty good arc.”

Mr. Leahy has expressed mounting frustration in recent years with the gridlock that has stymied most legislation in Congress, often complaining to reporters during the tensest moments in negotiations that bills should just be put on the floor for an up-or-down vote. He is a lead sponsor of legislation to expand voting rights protections, which Republicans have blocked repeatedly this year through filibusters.

While he has kept up a steady stream of work in the Senate, where the average age is about 64, Mr. Leahy’s health has faltered at times recently. In January, shortly after opening the impeachment proceedings, he was briefly taken to the hospital for observation after he reported not feeling well.

“Very few in the history of the United States Senate can match the record of Patrick Leahy,” said Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader. “He has been a guardian of Vermont and more rural states in the Senate, and has an unmatched fidelity to the Constitution and rule of law.”

Mr. Schumer expressed confidence that the seat would remain in Democratic hands, though in an interview, he declined to single out any candidate and said he would wait for the voters to decide. Senator Bernie Sanders, 80, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, will become Vermont’s senior senator upon Mr. Leahy’s retirement.

“He leaves a unique legacy that will be impossible to match,” Mr. Sanders said.

Mr. Leahy’s announcement means that the top two positions on the Appropriations Committee will be vacated at the end of 2022. Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the panel’s top Republican and a close friend of Mr. Leahy’s, is also retiring.

But Mr. Leahy vowed that he would oversee the completion of the dozen annual spending bills to keep the government funded. He joked on Monday that his approach at the helm of the Appropriations Committee “was simple: help all states in alphabetical order, starting with the letter V — Vermont.”

“I’m sure he would agree one great way to honor him would be to make sure this year’s appropriations bills are signed into law as soon as possible,” Senator Patty Murray of Washington, another senior Democrat on the Appropriations panel, said on Twitter.

Born almost blind in one eye, Mr. Leahy found photography to be an outlet and is known to carry a camera on Capitol Hill, snapping photos of both his colleagues and the journalists who roam the hallways. (He is also working on a memoir that will reflect his bipartisan work and his photography.)

Outside the Capitol, Mr. Leahy is known as a fan of Batman, and he has made appearances in the franchise’s films, including confronting Heath Ledger’s Joker in “The Dark Knight.”

He also takes great pride in the prized real estate that comes with being the most senior senator, often taking visitors, reporters and colleagues to his private hideaway office in the Capitol to marvel at the breathtaking views of the Washington Monument and the National Mall.

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Biden and Xi meet amid economic and military tensions.

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President Biden will virtually meet with President Xi Jinping of China as the two leaders confront the growing tensions between their countries.Credit...Ng Han Guan/Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Biden and President Xi Jinping of China met in a virtual summit on Monday evening as the United States seeks to engage in what the administration calls “intense competition” with China while preventing serious conflict.

The meeting, which began shortly before 8 p.m. Eastern, was expected to last more than three hours.

Since becoming president, Mr. Biden had previously spoken twice with Mr. Xi, but they have not met in person this year. Administration officials said the virtual meeting was meant to reassure both sides that misunderstandings and miscommunications would not lead to unintended clashes.

A senior U.S. official told reporters on Sunday that the president would emphasize the need to keep “communication lines open” as the two countries confront disagreements over issues like the future of Taiwan, the militarization of the South China Sea and cybersecurity.

Mr. Biden has repeatedly suggested that it should be possible to avoid active military engagement with China, even as the United States engages in competition with Beijing and continues to confront the Chinese leadership on several significant issues.

But the call, which was initiated at Mr. Biden’s request, reflected his administration’s deep concern that the chances of keeping conflict at bay might be diminishing.

Members of Mr. Biden’s team were guarded about what topics he intended to raise with Mr. Xi. The senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the meeting, broadly outlined a few of the issues that were likely to come up.

The official said Mr. Biden planned to address several points of disagreement, including China’s human rights abuses, America’s commitment to defending Taiwan, China’s support of its state-based industries and its policies regarding cybertechnologies.

Also on the agenda were areas in which Chinese and American interests appeared to be aligned, including efforts to combat global warming. But the administration official said Mr. Biden would make clear to Mr. Xi that working to prevent climate change was not a “favor” to the United States, but rather a decision by China to act in its own best interests.

It was unclear whether Mr. Xi intended to raise other issues, such as U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods or the recent U.S. deal to provide nuclear submarines to Australia. The senior official said Mr. Biden was not planning to raise those topics unless Mr. Xi mentioned them.

The official declined to say whether the two leaders would discuss the possibility of U.S. representation at the 2022 Winter Olympics, which will be held in Beijing in February.

Biden administration officials have said they believe the U.S.-China relationship is in a new phase that is more dynamic and complex than it has been in years past. But it remains unclear how Mr. Biden will try to accomplish his goals when previous administrations tried and failed to make good on similar agendas.

President Barack Obama tried a similar balancing act with the Chinese, securing a commitment from Mr. Xi to avoid militarizing the South China Sea — a threat to international travel through the area — and to reduce cyberconflicts between the two countries.

Since then, China has built up its military presence in the South China Sea, and cyberclashes have intensified.

Economists say President Biden’s spending plans will ease inflation, but argue over when.

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Shoppers in New York last month. White House officials say that by increasing the economy’s capacity to churn out goods and services, the president’s plans could help moderate costs over time.Credit...Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York Times

Rocketing inflation has become a headache for U.S. consumers, and President Biden has a go-to prescription: a $1.85 trillion collection of spending programs and tax cuts that is languishing in the Senate.

A wide range of economists agree with the president — but only in part, Jeanna Smialek and Jim Tankersely report for The New York Times.

  • They generally accept his argument that in the long run, the bill and his infrastructure plan could make businesses and their workers more productive, which would help to ease inflation as more goods and services are produced across the economy.

  • But many researchers, including a forecasting firm that Mr. Biden often cites to support the economic benefits of his proposals, say the bill is structured in a way that could add to inflation next year, before prices have had time to cool off.

The extent to which Mr. Biden’s $1.85 trillion bill exacerbates inflation largely depends on how much it stimulates the economy and whether Americans increase their spending as a result of the legislation — and when all of that occurs.

Many economists say it could create a short-term stimulus because the plan is structured to raise money gradually by taxing wealthier Americans, who are less likely to spend each additional dollar they have, and redistribute it quickly to people who earn less and are more likely to spend newfound cash.

“According to the economic experts, this bill is going to ease inflationary pressures,” the president said on Wednesday.

Still, the 17 Nobel Prize-winning economists that the White House regularly cites have specified that capacity improvements will ease inflation over time rather than imminently.

“Because this agenda invests in long-term economic capacity and will enhance the ability of more Americans to participate productively in the economy,” they wrote, “it will ease longer-term inflationary pressures.”

President Biden’s economic measures are drawing more complicated reviews when it comes to its immediate effect on inflation. READ THE ARTICLE →

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Infrastructure bill signing, Bannon’s legal troubles and more: Here’s what you need to know today.

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President Biden at the White House on Friday.Credit...Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times

President Biden on Monday celebrated a key victory in his legislative agenda — and the fulfillment of a central promise of his 2020 campaign — by signing into law a $1 trillion infrastructure spending bill at the White House, surrounded by lawmakers from both parties who backed the measure.

But the moment of good will and cooperation is likely to be fleeting for the president, who will spend several hours Monday night in a virtual summit with President Xi Jinping of China as the two leaders confront the growing tensions between their countries.

The rest of Mr. Biden’s agenda, including a separate $1.85 trillion social spending bill, remains locked in a procedural brawl among members of his own party in Congress. The effort to untangle those competing interests also resumed Monday, ahead of the Thanksgiving recess next week.

White House officials are bracing for an analysis from the Congressional Budget Office, expected this week, that will indicate whether the spending in the sprawling bill will be entirely offset by new tax revenue — something that moderate Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate have demanded.

Some officials are nervous that the budget office will determine that stepped-up enforcement by the Internal Revenue Service will not generate the hundreds of billions of dollars in new revenue that Mr. Biden’s administration has predicted. That would make it harder to claim that the spending is paid for.

And across town, at a federal courthouse in Washington, Stephen K. Bannon, who served as the chief strategist for President Donald J. Trump, surrendered to the authorities after a federal grand jury indicted him for contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Mr. Bannon’s legal troubles underscored the ongoing battle confronting the Biden administration about whether and how to hold Mr. Trump and his allies accountable for the lives that were lost on Jan. 6 and for the attempt to subvert the normal democratic process of counting votes in a presidential election.

White House officials are hoping that the bipartisan scene at the bill signing on the South Lawn of the White House on Monday will provide a bit of a respite from the challenges that face the president.

During his campaign for president, Mr. Biden promised that he would be able to win the support of Republicans and Democrats for his policies. That message resonated with voters after four years in which Mr. Trump clashed spectacularly with Democrats.

But much of Mr. Biden’s legislation so far has been passed with little support from the opposing party. His $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package was passed in the Senate and the House without any Republican support. And his social spending plan, known as Build Back Better, is likely to pass with only Democratic votes.

That reality made the bipartisan passage of the infrastructure measure sweeter for Mr. Biden and his aides in the White House.

With the bill signed, Mr. Biden is planning a burst of presidential travel with the aim of showing the American people real examples of how the new law will pump money into the economy and provide good-paying jobs by upgrading roads, bridges, lead pipes, broadband and other infrastructure.

On Tuesday, he is expected to travel to New Hampshire, where he will give remarks at a bridge over the Pemigewasset River that is in critical need of rehabilitation. The following day, he will visit a General Motors electric vehicle assembly plant in Detroit.

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