Senate Will Finally Take Up Loretta Lynch Nomination

She got nominated in November, and the Senate will finally get around to considering Loretta Lynch for the post of attorney general this week. Lynch got caught up in a partisan fight unrelated to her nomination that didn't get resolved until today, reports the Wall Street Journal. But once the finishing touches on that deal are made, "we’ll move to the president’s nominee for attorney general in the next day or so,” says Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The compromise came on a human-trafficking bill that got hung up over a dispute on abortion funding. Under the bill, fines raised will be used to help trafficking victims, but Democrats had filibustered because the legislation specifically ruled out using the money to pay for abortions.

The compromise, as explained by the Washington Post: Victims can use the money for legal services but not for medical care, including abortions. If they need medical help, they'll be eligible to tap into a different fund already in place and already subject to abortion restrictions under the Hyde Amendment. The victims, then, still cannot use federal money to pay for abortions, but Democrats were OK with this change because the legislation doesn't expand the Hyde Amendment "to prohibit funds gathered from criminal fines from being used for abortion services," reports the Hill. Democrats feared that would set a bad precedent.