Sen. Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, has spent most of the last two weeks trying to find a way out the most fractious issue so far this year dividing the chamber’s Republicans and Democrats.
A proposed bill to aid human trafficking victims is tied up in abortion politics and the collateral damage has affected the nomination of Loretta Lynch, leading Democrats to charge that it’s because she is an African-American.
Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., won’t let Lynch get a confirmation vote until the trafficking bill passes, which right now is unlikely. Sen. Minority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., claimed that the delay is akin to making Lynch “sit in the back of the bus,” a reference to the time of segregation.
The trafficking bill is due for another vote next week but there is no compromise in sight.
As the lead sponsor of the bipartisan Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, Cornyn had a strong contingent from both parties eager to pass the bill to strengthen penalties against sex traffickers and help victims.
Then Democrats realized they had missed – or, according to some, were distracted from noticing by GOP staffers – an anti-abortion provision added to it.
The Senate bill would create a $30 million fund for victims financed by fines on traffickers. Republicans added a stipulation that none of the money could be used for abortion except in cases of rape or incest.
The so-called Hyde Amendment, named for the late Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., dates back to 1976 and is a part of annual funding bills. The trafficking bill was unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee without Democratic members realizing it was included.
Its discovery in the trafficking bill sent off alarms and a nearly two week filibuster that persisted despite the defections of four Democrats to the GOP side: Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota. The Republicans need two more Democrats for 60 votes to prevail and move the bill.
In a remarkably candid exchange on the Senate floor Wednesday between Cornyn and Sen. Dianne Feintsein, D-Calif., who is a sponsor of the bill, the emotions were laid bare.
Cornyn said that Feinstein had voted for the bill as well as for the Hyde Amendment many times in her career. “Why is it that it all of a sudden becomes objectionable on this legislation – when you care and I care so passionately about getting help for these victims – that this is the reason to derail the legislation?” asked Cornyn.
The California senator, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, raised her hand and said “mea culpa” for Democrats’ failure to read the bill.
But she said once she found out, she had to take a stand.
“You know, many of us ran on the right to choose,” said Feinstein. “I was one of them. I am old enough to have seen the way it was before, to have sentenced women who committed illegal abortions with coat hangers. That is sort of the systemic root of all of this. It is our history, senator. We are trying to change that history, and we keep losing. So there is one small thing in this.”
She then asked the Texan to, “Let it go.”
Cornyn replied, “I think it is a terrible shame that my colleague’s side of the aisle has decided to take this bill hostage to try to litigate something that has been the law of the land for 39 years. I understand she feels passionately about it. I don’t question that for a minute, the sincerity of my colleague’s deeply held personal views.”
But the Texas senator, a former state attorney general and state Supreme Court justice, said, that he, too had personal pro-life views.
As a compromise, Cornyn has offered to make the funding provision part of the appropriations process, an annual approval instead of a five year authorization. Democrats Thursday rejected it.
“Senator Cornyn’s proposal to simply funnel fees collected from traffickers in his bill through the appropriations process still presents the same problem at hand – this is not taxpayer money,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.