Major Climate Action at Stake in Fight Over Twin Bills Pending in Congress

President Biden has framed this moment as the country’s best chance to save the planet.

“The nation and the world are in peril,” he said weeks ago in Queens, where 11 people drowned in their basement apartments after floodwaters from Hurricane Ida devastated communities from Louisiana to New York. “And that’s not hyperbole. That is a fact. They’ve been warning us the extreme weather would get more extreme over the decade, and we’re living in it real time now.”

Mr. Biden’s plan to try to fortify the United States against extreme weather — and...