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Biden Administration: President Biden delivers remarks at 2 p.m. ET from the White House on how his Build Back Better plan will lower the costs of prescription drugs.

Congress: The Senate meets at 3 p.m. to consider the nomination of Jessica Rosenworcel to be an FCC commissioner and vote on a motion to invoke cloture on the nomination.

CEO Council: The Wall Street Journal is hosting our annual CEO Council in Washington, D.C. Over the next two days we have a series of interviews with newsmakers from politics and business, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk; Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell; Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla; and Sen. Joe Manchin. Follow our coverage here.

Democrats are debating whether increasing the $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction would benefit the rich too much. More than 20 states have created workarounds to the limit, and New York’s law firms and private-equity firms are signing up, reports Richard Rubin.

• The full federal impact isn’t certain, but the momentum is toward expansion as more states and business owners sign on to workarounds.

Deadlines are nearing for Congress to complete must-pass pieces of legislation, with Democrats also pushing to finish their roughly $2 trillion social and climate policy legislation this year. The Democratic Party is under pressure to pass the bills ahead of contentious campaigning that will start in earnest in coming months as President Biden confronts low polling numbers and high inflation, reports Natalie Andrews. 

• This week, Congress is expected to focus on the must-pass annual defense policy bill, which was held up in the Senate last week over provisions regarding Russia and China.
   
• Lawmakers must also raise the debt limit by around midmonth. Congress has never before failed to increase the debt limit, which sets the maximum amount the U.S. is allowed to borrow to pay its debts.
   
• Lawmakers are discussing the possibility of addressing the debt limit as part of the defense bill, a move House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) has called a gimmick.

Bob Dole, who died early Sunday, went from the plains of Kansas to the battlefields of Europe, where he was left with grievous wounds, before a dogged recovery enabled him to become a Senate leader and Republican nominee for president.

Mr. Dole was a fixture on the Washington scene for more than half a century and a national leader of the Republican Party for nearly as long. As a legislator, and ultimately as leader of the Senate, he played a role on a staggering list of legislation touching every aspect of American society: voting rights, Social Security, food stamps, child-nutrition programs, the rights of the disabled, the North American Free Trade Agreement and more. As Congress’s chief tax writer, he was instrumental in the landmark Reagan-era tax cuts as well as in an overhaul of the nation’s tax code in 1986.

Over the arc of a 36-year career in Congress, Mr. Dole underwent a steady but dramatic transformation. He once was seen as a partisan slasher. In time, though, his partisan edges softened, and he worked with liberal icons George McGovern and Ted Kennedy on major legislation. (Read his obituary here.)

“Bob was an American statesman like few in our history,” President Biden said in a statement. “A war hero and among the greatest of the Greatest Generation. And to me, he was also a friend whom I could look to for trusted guidance, or a humorous line at just the right moment to settle frayed nerves.”

The Biden administration is preparing to fast-track authorization of revamped vaccines to combat Omicron as a study from South Africa suggests the fast-spreading variant might cause less severe illness than its predecessors, report Jason Douglas and Stephanie Armour. Federal regulators on Sunday said cases have been identified in 16 states.

Promising drugs to treat Covid-19 from Pfizer and Merck could receive regulatory clearance in the U.S. as soon as this month, but generic versions for lower-income countries remain months away, report Jared S. Hopkins and Gabriele Steinhauser. The medicines are set to play a central role in the world’s fight against Covid-19.

Covid-19 test samples and wastewater are helping health officials figure out how widely Omicron might be spreading in the U.S. Another factor that is making cases easier to find: a glitch in commonly used tests, reports Brianna Abbott. 

High inflation and falling unemployment have prompted Fed officials to lay the groundwork to more quickly end a pandemic-era stimulus program at their meeting next week, reports Nick Timiraos. The abrupt shift opens the door to the Fed raising interest rates next spring rather than later in the year to curb inflation.

High inflation has been blamed on supply-chain bottlenecks, labor shortages and the effects of fiscal stimulus, but there’s another factor at work—a shift away from globalization, reports Yuka Hayashi. Deglobalization gained impetus with the global financial crisis of 2008, Britain’s vote to leave the European Union in 2016 and former President Donald Trump’s tariffs. It might be adding to current high inflation, though those effects are hard to disentangle from the pandemic.

U.S. trade with Taiwan is booming, report Josh Zumbrun and Stephanie Yang. Expanded commerce comes as both sides move to strengthen their trading ties formally, over the objections of Beijing. Exports from the self-governing island to the U.S. have risen 70% since 2017, the year before the Trump administration imposed tariffs on China. U.S. exports to Taiwan have climbed about 35% from pre-tariff levels, largely driven by purchases of U.S. crude oil, machinery and cars.

• Tesla is facing an increasingly difficult business environment in China.

• The shift to renewable energy is both costing and creating jobs in the U.S., though generally not in the same place.

• Week ahead: The week’s economic indicators include trade and inflation data from the U.S. and China.

Classified American intelligence reports suggest China wants to put its first Atlantic military base in Equatorial Guinea, a tiny Central African country. The prospect has set off alarm bells in Washington, reports Michael M. Phillips. "We have made clear to Equatorial Guinea that certain potential steps involving [Chinese] activity there would raise national-security concerns,” said a senior Biden administration official.

• The 38-page plan was released ahead of a virtual Summit for Democracy that the administration is hosting later in the week with more than 100 countries participating, officials said.

• The U.S. is readying sanctions in run-up to the summit.

The administration faces the prospect of having to rely on Russia and China, two of its biggest international rivals, to end a nuclear standoff with Iran, report Laurence Norman and Brian Spegele. U.S. and European officials say they believe both countries are open to increasing pressure on Iran, as both have publicly acknowledged the dangers of a diplomatic failure.

President Biden and Vladimir Putin are expected to speak on Tuesday, as the Russian president amasses a force near the Ukrainian border that is expected to total 175,000 troops, which is significantly larger than previous buildups, reports Warren P. Strobel. 

• Mr. Putin is also set to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week to reinforce defense ties, as the U.S. considers sanctions over New Delhi’s purchase of a Russian missile system.

• From the day he first tested positive for the coronavirus until he went into the hospital, former President Donald Trump came into contact with some 500 people. (Washington Post)
• White House officials, worried that voters think President Biden hasn't brought order to government, are hoping to orchestrate a December without legislative drama. (Politico)
• Data show that reopening schools hasn't produced a surge in Covid-19 infections. (The Atlantic)

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