Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday the chamber must wrap up a human trafficking bill before it can debate and confirm President Obama’s pick for attorney general, Loretta Lynch, drawing a sharp rebuke from Democrats who say the nomination has languished for too long.
Mr. McConnell, Kentucky Republican, said he doesn’t want to remove abortion language that’s holding up passage of the trafficking bill. Democrats discovered it last week and threatened to filibuster the bill until it is removed.
The GOP leader said the majority of his chamber wants it in there, so Democrats ought to embrace it if they want to confirm Ms. Lynch anytime soon.
“It’s not a threat,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union,” noting that the trafficking bill is now on the Senate floor. “We need to finish that so we have time to turn to the attorney general. The next week we will be doing the budget, and the next two weeks after that, Congress is not in session.”
His comments outraged Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, whose office said Mr. McConnell is reneging on promises to bring up the nominee this week.
“Lynch’s nomination can be brought to the floor at any time,” Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson said. “There is nothing stopping the Senate from confirming Lynch and continuing to debate the trafficking bill this week except Senator McConnell’s unwillingness to bring her nomination up for a vote.”
Ms. Lynch cleared the Senate Committee on the Judiciary last month on a 12-8 vote, with three Republicans joining to support her.
An African-American and U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Ms. Lynch won widespread praise for her work as a prosecutor. But she has suffered from comparisons to current Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and because she declined to distance herself from President Obama’s claims of unilateral executive powers, which have angered Republican lawmakers.
“I think the attorney general nominee is suffering from the president’s actions, there’s no question about it,” Mr. McConnell said. “The actions he took unilaterally on immigration after the election enraged a number of members.”
The Senate leader refused to say whether he plans to vote for Ms. Lynch.
His comments, and the swift reaction from Senate Democrats, underscored a tense week for the upper chamber, as Republicans find their sea legs in power and Mr. Reid gets used to being the minority leader who launches filibusters instead of trying to overcome them.
Democrats found themselves outnumbered last week when Mr. McConnell offered them an up-or-down vote to strip language from the trafficking bill that would ban the use of federal funds for abortion.
Without the votes, Mr. Reid threatened to filibuster the bill unless Republicans cave and remove the so-called Hyde language.
Sen. John Cornyn, the Texas Republican who wrote the legislation, said he included the Hyde provision because it has been standard practice since 1976. Democrats have approved it dozens of times in annual spending bills and did so on a permanent basis through Obamacare, he added.
But Democrats said the ban has reached beyond taxpayer money and into new revenue streams — in this case, money collected from trafficking offenders, which is then used for programs that help victims.
Republicans say it’s disingenuous for Democrats to raise their objections at the eleventh hour. The standoff might scuttle the otherwise-bipartisan bill, but Mr. McConnell said his side isn’t to blame.
“You know,” he said, “sometimes the majority makes a difference.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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