The Senate is now completely stalled over a human trafficking bill with an abortion provision that has become so partisan that Republicans have further delayed a vote on the nomination of Loretta Lynch to be attorney general until it passes.
Senate Republicans on Tuesday failed to defeat a Democratic filibuster of the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, which includes a provision forbidding the use of federal funds for abortions.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., promised to bring the bill up for votes “again and again and again” until it passes – and reiterated that Lynch will not get a vote until then. The Senate is expected to vote again Wednesday in an attempt to stop the filibuster.
In an opening for Republicans, four Democrats broke ranks Tuesday and voted to move forward on the bill with the abortion language intact. Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota crossed the aisle on the procedural vote.
Sen. Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, the bill’s sponsor, said that all he needed was “two more brave Democrats” to join Republicans and move the bill forward.
“Why in the world can’t we find some way to set these differences aside, to fight them another day, and to move on doing some good where we can by passing this legislation?” asked Cornyn. “It has unfortunately become clear that this obstruction is about politics, plain and simple.”
But angry over the Republicans’ decision to link Lynch’s nomination to the fight over the trafficking bill, Democrats were in no mood to accommodate Cornyn. The Congressional Black Caucus in the House of Representatives weighed in as well, criticizing the lengthy delay in approving Lynch, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York and the first African-American woman nominee for the top post at the Justice Department.
“The chief law enforcement officer in our country is being detained because of this fight between Democrats and Republicans as to whether an abortion provision should be in this bill,” said Sen. Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “We believe it shouldn’t be in this bill. Republicans believe it should be.”
The provision, known as the Hyde Amendment, is a fixture of annual spending bills, but in this case it would apply to fines collected from traffickers – something Democratic leaders said they cannot accept.
Reid argued that Lynch’s nomination should move immediately.
Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, a former black caucus chairwoman and a former president of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, a predominantly black public service organization of which Lynch is a member, called McConnell’s decision “petty and mean-spirited” and suggested Lynch’s nomination is a “pawn in his political game.”
“I think the actions of Mitch McConnell are petty and mean-spirited because he is using the Lynch nomination as a pawn in his political game with the White House,” Fudge said in a conference call with reporters. “First it’s immigration, which she had nothing to do with. Now it’s abortion, which she had nothing to do with. I think it’s beneath him as leader of the Senate to suggest that they can’t do more than one thing at a time.”
Many Republican senators have come out in opposition to Lynch because she supports President Barack Obama’s executive orders deferring deportations of immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally.
The Lynch vote, when it does occur, could be close.
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., announced Tuesday that he will vote against her because he cannot support “discretionary enforcement of the law.”
For Cornyn, a former Texas attorney general and state Supreme Court justice, the fight on the trafficking bill is taking its toll.
“As I said before the vote, I really felt like this is a time when the very soul of the United States Senate is being tested,” he said.