Schumer was in on it and voted no because he wanted the plausible deniability because he knows he’s in hot water for all his previous collaborationist deals. The yes voters are loyal sacrificial patsies who (all but one I think) aren’t up for reelection. It’s backfired on him because one of the patsies chickened out while being grilled on camera and blabbed on him. That’s the consensus.

As to why now, yeah I’m pretty sure the air traffic closures were going to inconvenience their corporate donors.