Let me see if I have the sequence of events right. The human trafficking law has been in force since 2000 with periodic reauthorizations

"The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-386), the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003 (H.R. 2620), the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 (H.R. 972), and the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (H.R. 7311) provide the tools to combat trafficking in persons both worldwide and domestically. The Acts authorized the establishment of G/TIP and the President's Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons to assist in the coordination of anti-trafficking efforts.

-03/07/13 Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2013 (Title XII of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013)" from State.gov

When the materially identical billed stalled in 2014 it was reintroduced in 2015. It was foolishly assumed by Democrats that as is the usual process the bill is reauthorized without changes of any significance. It sailed through committee with full Democratic support and no discussion of any anti-abortion changes having been made.

"For instance, an e-mail exchange between two Judiciary Committee staffers obtained by POLITICO shows two staffers discussing the legislation. Republicans gave a list of seven changes from a different trafficking bill that stalled last year and the abortion provision wasn’t mentioned."

Then someone read the bill and noticed that the anti-abortion crusaders had modified the bill and added anti-abortion language that had never been in the law before.


"Democrats didn’t read the 68-page bill to discover its provisions dealing with abortion, and Republicans didn’t disclose the abortion language when Democratic staffers asked them for a summary of the legislation."

This alteration to the law was unacceptable to the Democrats and no member of the GOP had felt it necessary to announce the language having been inserted prior to the committee vote. Call it good tactics or call it sneaky. The Dems really should have read the bill but they didn't. Even the house bill didn't contain the anti-abortion language.

So the Democrats insisted the new language be removed before they would vote for the authorization.

The Democrats did not hold up the confirmation vote on AG, that was the majority leader's decision that he couldn't handle the difficult job of having the Senate look at two issues at once and until the trafficking bill was adjusted the Senate would be unable to vote on AG. The Democrats were perfectly ready all along to vote on the AG, from the day she passed through the required committee.