The Senate finally came together Wednesday in rare unanimous support of an anti-human trafficking bill and agreed to a compromise on an abortion provision that had divided the parties, delaying the bill for weeks.
The 99-0 vote on the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act came after Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., reached an agreement on the abortion language.
The vote also cleared the path for long-awaited consideration Thursday on the confirmation of Loretta Lynch to be attorney general.
Lynch, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, would be the first female African-American in the job if she is confirmed. The Senate vote is expected to be close.
Lynch now has support of five Republicans and 44 Democrats, as well as the Senate’s two independents, who caucus with the Democrats, giving her just enough votes for confirmation. Some Republicans have not announced their vote, so she could get more than the minimum.
The fight over Lynch became a dominant issue in Washington, as Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., refused to move her nomination until the human trafficking bill passed the Senate.
President Barack Obama, leading Democrats and some Republicans, including presumptive GOP presidential candidate and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, called for her to be confirmed.
On Wednesday, McConnell was unapologetic about the holdup to the trafficking bill, which was centered on the Hyde Amendment. Named for the late Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., it forbids taxpayer funding for abortions. The bill would have applied the restriction to a victims’ fund collected from traffickers, which Democrats insisted expanded the amendment’s reach.
In a hard-fought compromise, the bill establishes two funds, one that would use monies collected from traffickers to support victims in non-health-related ways and a separate fund with taxpayer funding for health services, to which Hyde would apply.
“Today we’ll finally vote to deliver much-needed resources for the victims of modern slavery, with Hyde expressly applying to all funds used for health and medical services just as it was in the original bill,” said McConnell. “That’s nothing new, it’s simply a reaffirmation of the status quo.”
McConnell credited Cornyn for his work with Democrats. “He was determined to see justice for victims,” McConnell said. “He negotiated across the aisle in good faith. He never gave up, not even in the bleakest hour.”
The bill strengthens laws against trafficking. It includes provisions such as an amendment from Sens. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., which attacks Internet sex trafficking by making it a crime to knowingly advertise a commercial sex act with a minor.
Cornyn said on the floor that he believed it was Winston Churchill who said, “Americans do the right thing after they’ve exhausted all the other possibilities.”
“This has been a long, strange victory, but here we are,” he said. “This is a terrible, heinous crime, but one most of us don’t see. We’re throwing a lifeline to victims of human trafficking.”
Murray said earlier in the day, “I know that Sen. Cornyn and many others agreed with us that an effort to fight back against human trafficking in our country is, without question, no place for gridlock and dysfunction.”