Senate Republicans Thursday set up a showdown vote with Democrats over a human trafficking bill that once had wide bipartisan support, but has split the two parties.
The dispute now threatens to postpone the planned confirmation vote for Attorney General Nominee Loretta Lynch.
“Stay tuned,” a GOP leadership aide said when asked whether Lynch’s nomination would have to wait.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will move to end debate Tuesday on legislation that would establish a $30 million restitution fund for victims of human trafficking. But Democrats are threatening to block the legislation through the use of the filibuster. They object to language in the bill that would prohibit using the restitution funds to pay for abortions.
The dispute began early in the week, when Democrats discovered the abortion language on page 50 of the 68-page legislation. Apparently, no Democratic lawmakers or staff noticed it from the time they co-sponsored the legislation, on Jan. 13, or when they voted unanimously to approve it in committee on March 2.
Democrats say Republicans should have pointed out the language in a memo sent to them about provisions in the bill.
But Republicans say Democrats should have read the bill and noticed the provision.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, accused Democrats of “filling space and throwing obstacles up to the passage of bipartisan legislation that is going to help some of the most vulnerable people in in our society.”
Democrats are insisting Republicans remove it, or they’ll use their power to filibuster a move to end debate, which essentially kills the legislation.
On Thursday, McConnell offered to hold a vote on an amendment to remove the language with a simple majority vote. Democrats objected, knowing it would never pass because they only control 46 votes.
“The legislation is going to pass this Congress, but it is going to pass without abortion language in it,” Sen. Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said on the Senate floor. “The way to handle this issue is very simple. Just take it out of the bill. That is what we propose. Take the abortion language out of this bill.”
Democrats are likely to succeed with their filibuster, which requires just 40 votes.
That leaves next week’s schedule up in the air.
“The bill is still the pending business,” for next week, the GOP aide said.
