Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday he may postpone a planned vote on attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch if lawmakers cannot come to agreement on a stalled human trafficking bill.
McConnell, appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said Democrats are blocking the bill even though they supported the same language in identical legislation that passed in December, and which cleared a Senate committee on March 2.
“I had hoped to turn to her next week,” McConnell said of the Lynch nomination. “But, if we cannot finish the trafficking bill, she will be put off again.”
Democrats are opposed to a provision in the trafficking bill that would prohibit use of restitution funds for obtaining abortions. Democrats didn’t notice the language until the legislation was on the Senate floor, but now they want McConnell to take the language out of the bill. They are threatening to filibuster the bill in a key vote scheduled for Tuesday.
But McConnell is not budging.
“The language they now process to find offensive was in there from the beginning,” McConnell said. “This is boilerplate language that has been in the law for almost 40 years, that they all voted for.”
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., issued a statement after McConnell’s CNN appearance, calling on him to hold a vote on the nomination of Lynch, who has been on hold for four months.
“Lynch’s nomination can be brought to the floor at any time,” Reid said. “There is nothing stopping the Senate from confirming Lynch and continuing to debate the trafficking bill this week, except Sen. McConnell’s unwillingness to bring her nomination up for a vote.”
