If there’s no agreement, Reid will move to start debate over a gun-control package. Manchin says gun deal close

Sen. Joe Manchin says he is on the verge of a bipartisan deal to expand background checks for gun sales, an agreement that could lead to the biggest change in U.S. gun laws in nearly 20 years.

Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, has been meeting with conservative GOP Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania over the past week to try to forge a deal on background checks.


Following a briefing with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Manchin told reporters the two sides were very close to an agreement.

“We’re getting there. We’re really getting there,” Manchin said. “Tomorrow we hope to be at the point where we can finalize everything.”

( Also on POLITICO: Obama: Gun control filibuster 'not right')

Signaling that they had reached consensus, Manchin and Toomey announced Tuesday night they would be holding a joint press conference on expanded background checks on Wednesday at 11 a.m.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who is also closely involved in the issue, said the two sides were on the verge of an important breakthrough, one that would allow Senate action on an hugely controversial topic. “We’re not there yet, but we’re closer than we’ve ever been.”

A spokesman for Toomey’s office said the Pennsylvania senator and Manchin continue to work on final details but appear close to a deal.

The Manchin-Toomey bill would be offered as an amendment to an existing Democratic gun bill.

( PHOTOS: Politicians speak out on gun control)

Reid moved Tuesday night to start debate over a gun control package that is a wish list for gun control advocates. Reid filed a cloture motion that sets up a Thursday vote to end a GOP filibuster of the motion to proceed to that gun bill. In order to gather 60 votes, Reid and other senior Democrats believe they can hold on to their own nervous members from red states, while picking up 10 or so Republicans.

The bigger problem for Reid then becomes what can actually pass the Senate. Beginning debate is far from passing a bill, and without the political cover from a Manchin-Toomey agreement, there is no guarantee that Reid could get the 60 votes he would need for a final vote on any legislation.

“We’re going to vote Thursday,” Reid confirmed on Tuesday afternoon. “I’m going to file cloture on the bill tonight. It would be a real slap in the face to the American people not to do something on background checks, on school safety, on illegal trafficking, which everybody thinks is a good idea.”

( Also on POLITICO: Reid cites father's suicide in gun debate)

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama has ratcheted up the pressure on lawmakers to pass a bill, haranguing Republicans on Monday in Connecticut for threatening a filibuster. Obama planned to spend part of Tuesday afternoon calling both Democratic and Republican senators to push them on his gun control agenda, a White House official said.

When pressed by reporters, Reid conceded that he’s going to lose some Democrats on the cloture vote. And the majority leader said he hasn’t been pressing Democrats to support a measure that is political dynamite for those in red states, many of whom are up for reelection in 2014.

Reid said that if the bill doesn’t get 60 votes to move to the floor, he would then move to hold votes on individual bills for several gun proposals, including the assault weapons ban, background checks and limits on high-capacity magazines.

Toomey represents Democrats’ last hope of reaching a compromise gun deal including background checks with record-keeping of most gun sales, a provision that gun groups and many conservatives fiercely oppose but that has broad public support. Democrats hoped that if they lured one conservative ally, then others — along with gun-friendly Democrats — would follow.

If no deal is reached, the White House and Democrats are likely to get far less than they wanted out of gun control legislation since the killing of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

One senator Obama reached was Illinois Republican Mark Kirk, a Kirk aide said. Obama thanked Kirk for his work on background checks, the aide said, and the two men also discussed the situation in North Korea.

Nearly a dozen parents whose children died at Sandy Hook will be on Capitol Hill this week, looking to make a personal plea for gun control legislation. The parents have signed on with lobbying firm Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti, which recently filed paperwork to begin lobbying on firearms legislation for Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit group created by residents.

While the official meeting list isn’t public, POLITICO has learned that the Sandy Hook parents are set to meet with nearly a dozen senators from both parties, including — besides Manchin and Toomey — Sens. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) John Cornyn (R-Texas), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Angus King (I-Maine) and Kay Hagan (D-N.C.).

Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder spoke at a 2 p.m. White House event to push Obama’s gun control agenda.

Biden declared at the White House that he is dumbfounded that proposals for background checks could be filibustered by Senate Republicans.

“After all the thinking and the debate and the discussion and an overwhelming majority of the American people thinking that the proposals the American people put forward make absolute sense, the climax of this tragedy could be we’re not even going to get a vote. Imagine how this makes us look. I can’t believe the Senate will actually do it. I know I keep being told by staff they’re going to do it, and it’s going to happen, but I can’t believe it. At the end of the day, I can’t believe that it will actually happen.”

Biden said the nation will be embarrassed by the Senate GOP actions.

“Dealing with this national tragedy, it won’t even proceed. Now maybe, between now and the time it gets to the floor, they will, as my mother would say, they will have seen the light. Maybe that will change. What an embarrassing thing to say! Imagine what they’re saying, gentlemen and ladies, in other capitals around the world.”

Senate Democrats are trying to determine their floor strategy for passing a gun bill — or they may decide they will be left to run on the issue in 2014.

The Democrats’ current background checks bill was authored by Schumer and contains universal checks for gun sales, including a record-keeping provision disliked by conservatives.

Democrats are also pushing gun-trafficking provisions and increased funding for school safety.

The Senate will hold separate votes on an assault weapons ban and to prohibit high-capacity ammunition magazines, if Democrats can overcome an expected Republican filibuster.

The Schumer background checks bill — passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee last month — has yet to attract any significant GOP support. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has promised a filibuster, which has attracted support from a dozen other Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

When asked about supporting a filibuster, McConnell said: “The particular bill that the majority leader has indicated that he may call up is one that came out of the Judiciary Committee on a partisan vote.”

“We’ll see what he decides to turn to and take a look at that then.”

Some red-state Democrats up for reelection in 2014 also oppose the bill.

Reid set the deadline during a Monday morning planning session with Senate Democrats and gun control allies.

Manchin met with Senate Democratic leadership early Tuesday evening to deliver a progress update. His spokesman declined to comment.

Manchin is trying to persuade Toomey — a former Pennsylvania House member and president of the Club for Growth — to sign on to a proposal that would require checks and records of sales in commercial settings, including gun shows and online. Private sales would not be covered.

Schumer and Manchin held talks for several weeks with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) about a bipartisan agreement, but those discussions fell apart over Coburn’s concerns on what records would be kept from the background checks and for how long. Coburn is now floating his own proposal on the issue.

Toomey was an unlikely choice for an ally. As president of Club for Growth, he often supported conservative primary challengers to incumbent Republicans. But that group’s agenda — and indeed, Toomey’s own interests — are largely focused on fiscal issues and deficit busting. Toomey is also up for reelection in 2016, and will need to carry large portions of the more moderate Philadelphia suburbs, where gun control is likely to be popular.

In a statement last week, Toomey signaled he was open to a compromise on background checks. “And so I’m in favor of making changes to a background system if I believe that it would help to reduce the likelihood that a person who shouldn’t have access to a gun doesn’t get access to a gun,” Toomey said in a local TV interview.

Ginger Gibson and Anna Palmer contributed to this report.