WASHINGTON — The Senate may be moving closer to a vote on Loretta Lynch’s nomination as U.S. attorney general after a top Republican said he’s optimistic that negotiators can agree to end a dispute over anti-abortion language in an unrelated human- trafficking measure.
“We’re not there yet, but we’re in a much better place than I think we’ve been in the past three weeks,” said Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn of Texas. Party leaders canceled a planned procedural vote Thursday on the latest version of the trafficking bill to give negotiators time to reach agreement.
Democrats also said they were optimistic.
“There is a serious possibility of coming to agreement; we don’t know yet,” Michigan Democrat Debbie Stabenow said. “There are active discussions going on.”
Senate Democrats had rejected Republicans’ latest proposal for anti-abortion language in the trafficking bill, which Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has insisted the chamber pass before voting on Lynch’s nomination. The dispute has delayed for several weeks a confirmation vote on Lynch, who was nominated by President Obama in November.
Democrats are blocking a vote on the trafficking bill because they object to Republican language in the measure to ban abortion funding. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday that “it would be wrong” for Democrats to accept Cornyn’s latest proposal, which he said would inappropriately expand abortion restrictions.
“There is an honest effort to find a solution,” Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the chamber’s second-ranking Democrat, said on the Senate floor Thursday, adding that senators were “still working on new language.”
Reid said in an interview to air Thursday night on MSNBC that he would seek to force a vote on Lynch’s confirmation if the Senate doesn’t act soon.
“I know parliamentary procedure around here and we’re going to put up with this for a little while longer but not much,” Reid said, according to a transcript released by his office.
Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, told reporters Tuesday that Democrats won’t agree to apply the abortion-funding ban to non-taxpayer money.
A Democratic leadership aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, disputed Cornyn’s assertion that a deal was imminent.
Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, the chamber’s third- ranking Democrat, said Thursday that the vote was canceled after Republicans failed to persuade more Democrats to agree to advance the measure.
Lynch, 55, has support from 51 senators, including all 46 Democrats and five Republicans — enough to win confirmation if a vote were held. The top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, Lynch would be the first black woman to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement official.
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