Barring a last-minute deal, the Senate may adjourn next week without passing a stalled human trafficking bill that is holding up a confirmation vote for Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch. The upper chamber could close up shop as early as next Thursday, putting a pause of at least three weeks on the high-profile votes.
Republicans and Democrats Wednesday were no closer to finding a path forward on the trafficking legislation, and a top Republican admitted the bill could be pulled indefinitely.
Democrats blocked the bill for a third time on Wednesday, insisting that Republicans first remove language Democrats initially failed to notice in the bill that prohibits restitution funds from being used to pay for abortions.
But Republicans aren’t budging either.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the senate will be consumed with a debate on the 2016 budget proposal next week and will put aside the trafficking legislation, which is two votes shy of the 60 votes needed to stop a filibuster.
After March 27, the Senate will not be in session for two weeks, returning the week of April 13.
At that point, the trafficking bill debate would either resume or be set aside for other pressing legislation, including a cyber security bill, legislation to end Medicare reimbursement cuts, and a trade bill.
“If we can’t get the vote, if we can’t bust off a couple more Democrats to clear it, then I suppose it could go away for a while,” Sen. John Thune, R-S.D. and a GOP leader, told the Washington Examiner.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has not indicated whether he would put aside the trafficking bill when the Senate returns in April.
Republicans have tied Lynch’s confirmation vote to the passage of the legislation. If McConnell sets the trafficking bill aside, it could leave Lynch in limbo.
Democrats have already used Lynch’s stalled nomination to criticize Republicans.
On Wednesday, Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin likened the postponement of a vote on Lynch, who is black, to the segregation-era practice of sending blacks to sit “in the back of the bus.” (Current Attorney General Eric Holder is also black and was approved 75-to-21 in 2009, with 19 Republicans voting in favor.)
Lynch was nominated in November and Senate Democrats have pointed out she has waited for a confirmation vote longer than the previous four attorney general nominees combined.
“Loretta Lynch, the first African American woman nominated to be attorney general, is asked to sit in the back of the bus when it comes to the Senate calendar,” Durbin said on the Senate floor.
Democrats want McConnell to hold a vote on Lynch. But McConnell and most Republicans oppose her nomination and are dangling a vote on her confirmation to push Democrats into giving up the fight on the trafficking bill.
Democrats on Wednesday showed no signs of backing down.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., took to the Senate floor to read passages from the book Half the Sky, which chronicles the slavery and sexual abuse of women worldwide.
Behind the scenes, Republicans and Democrats are seeking a path to compromise, including one authored by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
“I’m optimistic,” Collins said, without providing details of her proposal.
On the Senate floor, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, offered to rewrite the bill so the language did not appear to expand the existing language blocking federal funds from being used for abortions. Democrats say the way the bill is currently worded, it would apply to non-taxpayer funds because the restitution money — assistance paid to trafficking victims — is intended to come from fines and fees levied against perpetrators of human trafficking.
Cornyn said Republicans could structure the bill so the fines are filtered through the appropriations process, which would then subject them to the existing federal language.
“Lots of people have ideas,” a spokesman for McConnell said.
