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McConnell Sets Thursday Vote on Loretta Lynch

McConnell filed cloture Tuesday night. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
McConnell filed cloture Tuesday night. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell set up a Thursday cloture vote on Loretta Lynch’s nomination to be attorney general after breaking a logjam over amendments to the human trafficking bill.

The Kentucky Republican’s filing of cloture on Tuesday ends Lynch’s months-long limbo, with the votes for her confirmation seemingly assured but her position held up as a bargaining chip as the parties wrangled over abortion provisions in the trafficking bill.

The Senate will vote Wednesday on a series of amendments to the trafficking bill, including the key compromise reached earlier Tuesday between Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, and a number of other amendments and final passage.

One amendment that didn’t make the cut: a proposal by Sen. David Vitter, R-La., attacking birthright citizenship. That one had raised the hackles of Democrats.

Related:

Senate Reaches Trafficking Deal


Republican Opposition to Lynch Might Make History


The 114th: CQ Roll Call’s Guide to the New Congress


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