Inside Schumer's infrastructure gamble

The Senate majority leader is courting moderates, channeling progressives and keeping a GOP channel open. It might not be enough.

Shortly before Chuck Schumer cued up a vote on the teetering bipartisan infrastructure agreement reached by five of his centrists, he gathered them all in person for a gut check.

The Senate majority leader wanted to explain his thinking in greater detail to the Democrats who’ve labored to cut a nearly $600 billion deal with Republicans, according to two sources familiar with the meeting. He needed to make sure everyone in his tight-knit 50-member caucus was behind him before taking a gamble that could endanger the bipartisan talks he’s spent weeks supporting.

Schumer emerged from the meeting confident that his aggressive tactics had buy-in from Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Jon Tester of Montana, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Mark Warner of Virginia. Though many Republicans claim Schumer is undercutting the bipartisan talks by forcing a Wednesday vote before negotiations have concluded, his most important swing votes all sided with him behind closed doors before he made a move.

Schumer “thought this was the best way to keep advancing the bill," Tester said of the leader's hardball move, adding in an interview that the New York Democrat "doesn't want to kill" the bipartisan deal. "And so I agreed. We all agreed. ... He is totally bought in to getting this across the finish line.”

Since deciding to move forward, Schumer has taken pains to explain that work on a bill can continue through the weekend if that’s what it takes, even as he seeks to impose a deadline on a back-and-forth that otherwise might never conclude. But by setting up a Wednesday roll call, he’s channeling progressive Democrats who have long doubted that Republicans will ever put the votes up to give President Joe Biden a bipartisan win.

As Schumer’s Monday afternoon meeting with the centrists partly illustrates, he has also been careful to court all corners of his caucus. He wants to make sure that if the entire deal-making attempt falls apart, moderate Democrats he needs to execute the rest of Biden’s agenda don’t blame him.