Sen. Klobuchar's long-supported human trafficking bill remains stalled

Sen. Klobuchar's long-supported human trafficking bill remains stalled

March 18, 2015 at 5:51PM

WASHINGTON -- It's day five of stalemate in the U.S. Senate over Sen. Amy Klobuchar's long-supported human trafficking bill.

On Tuesday, the bill stalled after it failed to get enough votes to even proceed to debate.

The measure, which extends help to victims of human and sex trafficking, is wholeheartedly supported by Republicans and Democrats and swiftly moved through the Judiciary Committee and was voted on in February. Both Sens. Klobuchar and Al Franken voted for it then.

At issue now is lanugage inserted by Republican lawmakers that prohibits trafficking victims from obtaining abortions or the Plan B pill with federal tax dollars. Republicans say it was in there from the beginning. Democrats, including Franken and Klobuchar, say it was intentionally opaque and they didn't see the language in the bill at first.

Neither Klobuchar nor Franken are now willing to support it until the language is removed. On the House side, GOP Rep. Erik Paulsen sponsored one of four bills that passed without the abortion language.

Klobuchar said late Tuesday: "We need to find a way to fix the provision so that we can get the bill passed."

No word on what she's doing to make that happen.

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Allison Sherry

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