Schumer-Manchin talks on Dem agenda hit a new hurdle: Covid quarantine

Chuck Schumer’s negotiations with Joe Manchin on their party’s domestic agenda were delicate even before the famously chatty majority leader caught Covid. Now he’s digging in for Congress’ most high-stakes work from quarantine in Brooklyn.

Sidelined and leading an in-session chamber from afar, Schumer is going all-out behind the scenes to steer the floor while keeping negotiations with Manchin alive. His pandemic predicament comes as July assumes an outsized role in his leadership of history’s longest-running 50-50 Senate.

Manchin and Schumer have spoken more than a half-dozen times, mostly in person, about party-line...