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“That big of a tent requires a big bank account, and that really to me is more of the question — how much money are they going to be willing to commit to this?” said Phil Smith, spokesperson for the United Mine Workers of America labor union. ”How much money is Congress going to be willing to let them commit to this?” The factions pushing to influence Biden’s agenda also have far different priorities — including Bernie Sanders-supporting green groups that want to ban all oil and gas drilling, automakers anticipating new markets for electric cars and fossil fuel companies that hope U.S. climate action will leave room for them to continue to produce the oil and gas whose production had boomed under the previous three presidents. Biden drew a sharp line between his plan to fight climate chang...

Powell declined to comment directly on whether more relief was needed but emphatically rejected fears that more direct checks could lead to troubling price spikes — doubling down on the Fed’s pledge to keep interest rates low to allow as many people back into the labor force as possible. Inflation has remained muted for years, despite warnings from some GOP lawmakers that it was bound to accelerate because of the Fed’s low-rate policy. “I’m much more worried about falling short of a complete recovery and losing people’s careers and lives that they built because they don’t get back to work in time,” Powell said. “I’m more concerned about that and the damage that will do, not just to their lives but to the United States economy.” He also underscored the importance of getting the virus ...

The Federal Reserve building is seen in Washington, D.C. | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo The Federal Reserve on Wednesday struck a more somber tone about the U.S. economy, saying the recovery is weakening as the country waits for widespread vaccinations against the coronavirus. “The pace of the recovery in economic activity and employment has moderated in recent months, with weakness concentrated in the sectors most adversely affected by the pandemic,” the Fed’s rate-setting committee said in its post-meeting statement. That contrasts with its observation last month that the economy had “continued to recover.” Economic pain is still acute for tens of millions of people and for businesses across the country as the pandemic, which has taken the lives of more than 400,000 Americans, continues ...

Green groups were quick to welcome Biden’s climate initiatives, which had been the subject of chatter among environmental activists for weeks. Many of those groups had spent the past four years locked in court challenges against Trump’s own steady stream of executive orders. “These actions stand in stark contrast to the denial of climate change and the attacks our oceans and coasts have faced over the past four years,” Diane Hoskins, campaign director at Oceana, a group advocating for protection of oceans, said of Biden’s plans to place an open-ended moratorium on the issuing new leases for oil and gas drilling in federal waters. “This stuff is a major step forward.” Wednesday’s orders are part of an early slew of actions to fulfill Biden’s campaign pledges to address cli...