PD Editorial: Put aside politics for sake of these victims

Some days it’s not clear which institution is more out of control in the nation’s capital, the Secret Service or Congress.

The latest in a string of embarrassments for the former is the revelation that two agents, accused of being drunk, drove their car into a White House barricade on March 4. But at least the problem, in that case, was clear, and the damage was pretty much limited to the institution’s own reputation.

Not so with the lingering effects of the acrimony that paralyzes Congress.

The latest embarrassment for Capitol Hill is the failure to make progress on an anti-human trafficking bill that just two weeks ago appeared to have broad, bipartisan support. How quickly things can change.

This week, the bill has become subject of a filibuster among Senate Democrats and has become inexplicably intertwined with the stalled confirmation of Loretta Lynch, President Barack Obama’s nominee to succeed Eric Holder as attorney general. By all accounts, Lynch is certain to be confirmed - if she ever gets a vote in the Senate.

The bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, seeks to create a federal fund for victims using fines collected from those found guilty of sex trafficking. The bill has few opponents, but it faltered on Tuesday due to a provision that prevents money raised from the fees from being used to pay for abortions for the victims.

Democrats in the Senate are protesting, alleging Republicans tucked new language into the bill at the 11th hour. Republicans deny the charge, saying it’s a byproduct of the Hyde Amendment, a provision attached to appropriation bills since 1976 that prohibits taxpayer dollars from funding abortions.

As a result, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is sticking to his pledge not to take up the issue of confirming Lynch until the sex trafficking bill passes out of the Senate.

Democrats are right in the sense that this would be a better bill without the language that turns it into a debate about abortion. Must every issue run through this prism? The emphasis should be on the health and well-being of the victims of trafficking.

That said, there are no winners in this dispute, particularly given that the abortion issue may be rendered moot by a Hyde Amendment exemption that allows taxpayer-funded abortions in cases of rape. It appears that for victims of sex trafficking that provision should and would be in force.

Congress has shown a great capacity for creating problems where none exist. In this case, it should settle down and give both the trafficking bill and Lynch’s nomination the clean votes they deserve.

In the process, Congress may yet prove to itself, as well as to members of the Secret Service, the merits of getting out of their own way - and focusing on the job expected of them.