Senate clears way for vote on AG nominee Loretta Lynch

The Senate on Tuesday announced an agreement to move ahead on a stalled human trafficking bill, a development that should finally result in a long-delayed confirmation vote on attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch.

"As soon as we finish the trafficking bill," Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said, "we'll move to the president's nominee for attorney general in the next day or so."

Democrats repeatedly filibustered the trafficking bill due to language restricting abortions — language they claimed Republicans sneaked into the bill at the last minute. Republicans responded by refusing to hold a confirmation vote for Lynch — whose nomination has been pending since November — until the Senate finished work on the trafficking bill.

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