McConnell ‘happy’ with Lynch strategy

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that he’s “happy” with his strategy to link a bill to curb human trafficking to Loretta Lynch’s attorney general nomination.

“Yeah, I’m happy with it,” he said, when asked if he thought linking the two issues was the only way to get the trafficking bill through the Senate. “I’m happy with where we are. We needed to finish the trafficking bill, it’s an important bill.”

{mosads}Lynch’s nomination, originally expected to be voted on in March, has been in limbo as senators debated an abortion provision within the anti-trafficking legislation.

Despite increasing pressure from outside forces, McConnell has been adamant that senators wouldn’t vote on Lynch’s nomination until after they passed the trafficking legislation.

McConnell doubled down on that Tuesday, saying, “I said from the beginning to the end that we would take up the attorney general nomination just as soon as we finished trafficking.”

Senators are expected to vote this week on the anti-trafficking legislation. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters that the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act will pass the Senate by Wednesday.