U.S. SENATE - Human Trafficking vs Confirmation of Loretta Lynch

"Was the human trafficking compromise worth delaying vote on Loretta Lynch?" PBS NewsHour 4/21/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Senate negotiators struck a deal to tweak the human trafficking bill that has held up the confirmation proceedings for President Obama's nominee for U.S. attorney general, Loretta Lynch.  The holdup was due to an unrelated fight over access to abortion for human trafficking victims.  Gwen Ifill talks to Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., about the deal and the delay.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  It took more than five months, but Senate negotiators finally came to agreement on the bill that had blocked Loretta Lynch’s path to confirmation as President Obama’s second Attorney General.

The hitch appeared in an entirely unrelated fight over access to abortion for victims of human trafficking.

MAN:  Mr. President?  The majority leader.

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  Word of the deal came first thing this morning, on the Senate floor, from Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, Majority Leader:  I’m glad we can now say there is a bipartisan proposal that will allow us to complete action on this important legislation, so we can provide help to the victims who desperately need it.

GWEN IFILL:  The agreement also means the Senate will likely vote, McConnell said, in the next day or so on attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch.

That was welcome news to Minority Leader Harry Reid.

SEN. HARRY REID, Minority Leader:  Let’s get out — get rid of this quickly.  Let’s get Loretta Lynch confirmed quickly and move on to other matters.

GWEN IFILL:  The human trafficking bill and the nomination had been blocked for months.  Initially, there was bipartisan backing for the bill that sets up a fund for victims of trafficking.  But an impasse developed when Democrats objected to language that would expand prohibitions on abortion funding.

Republicans, in turn, insisted they wouldn’t take up the Lynch nomination until the human trafficking bill passed.  Today’s deal tweaks the abortion language in a way that both sides say they can accept.  It also comes several days after President Obama blasted the delay of the Lynch nomination.