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The Senate majority leader is vowing to call up bills on voting rights and gun control that lack sufficient GOP support, steering the chamber toward a partisan collision over the 60-vote threshold needed to pass most legislation. Senators are starting a flurry of bipartisan talks to gauge whether any of their deadlocks on minimum wage, infrastructure and immigration can be broken. But ultimately it’s Schumer who will have to decide whether to make a final push to toss the filibuster for a simple majority to rule the upper chamber, or to rely on his deal-making centrists to produce legislation that can actually pass with 10 GOP votes.

Schumer has not said that he personally supports killing the filibuster but has promised to not let the GOP stand in the way of “bold” legislation from Democrats. Many progressives are pushing for him to use the party’s sweeping voting rights bill as the pretext to gut the 60-vote threshold, but that plan has two problems: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) opposes the voting bill as written, and Manchin is one of several Democrats who don’t support ending the filibuster.

Though getting his caucus on board to invoke the “nuclear option” won’t be easy if he tries to, Schumer is refusing to disarm unilaterally. Announcing an aggressive agenda on Thursday, he declared that “everything is on the table” and “failure is not an option.”

Republicans hear rhetoric like that and predict Schumer is headed down the path of his predecessor as Democratic leader, former Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, who squashed the filibuster for most nominees after Republicans blocked judicial picks.

“I think [Schumer] wants a permanent partisan majority. I really do,” said GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. “He would change it.”

The reality is more complicated. Schumer is an expert at channeling the feelings of his caucus, and Democratic senators have no clear agreement on the topic. A source close to Schumer said that “when he says they’ll have a discussion as a caucus and everything is on the table, he means it.”

Schumer also must work in harmony with President Joe Biden, who said Thursday he’s open to changing the filibuster if Republicans abuse the maneuver to block his agenda. But Biden dodged the question of whether to keep the 60-vote requirement.