Senate has deal on sex trafficking bill to get to Loretta Lynch nomination

What two things don't have anything to do with each other? The attorney general nominee, Loretta Lynch, whose confirmation vote is stalled on the Senate floor and victims of human trafficking and whether or not those victims—often children—should be able to get abortions. The only thing they have in common is Sen. Mitch McConnell's vindictive and toxic approach to governing, which is to take the maximum number of hostages available. So Senate Democrats spent the weekend figuring out how to move forward on the trafficking bill—which Republicans are insisting have abortion-restricting language for the first time in the legislation's existence—in order to get to the vote on Lynch.

They apparently have a deal worked out.

Aides to Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) have been working for weeks to break the impasse. As introduced, the bill would have collected fees from sex traffickers and put them into a new victims fund subject to the Hyde Amendment, the federal provision that bars the use of federal funds for abortions except in cases of rape and incest. Democrats objected to the abortion language in general, but more so because the bill expanded the Hyde Amendment to include private funds.

Under the deal announced Tuesday, the bill will create two funding streams. The first one flows from fines collected from sex traffickers, and would be used for survivor services like health care. This stream would not include Hyde Amendment restrictions. The second one would come from community health center funds that are already subject to the abortion limits.

The deal lets both parties walk away with a solid talking point: Democrats can celebrate that they prevented an expansion of Hyde, while Republicans can say they didn't cave on restricting abortion access.

Which is exactly what they've been doing. McConnell insists that the Hyde language stays in the bill. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid says that the scope of Hyde language hasn't been expanded. The two funds, one with Hyde attached and one without, give each side some kind of victory. That is if stupid Republican amendments don't torpedo it. For example, Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) "wants a vote on an amendment curtailing birthright citizenship."

Both caucuses will meet today in the regular luncheons, where the deal will be hashed through and senators offering stupid amendments will either be put off or allowed. The vote could happen Tuesday, and the Lynch vote in the next few days.

8:47 AM PT: Planned Parenthood signs off on the agreement.