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Senate Democrats blocked getting to a vote on an anti-human trafficking bill Tuesday after objecting to restrictions on funding for abortions. Democrats said Republicans put it in the bill without their knowledge.

The vote was 55 to 43, but needed 60 votes to pass. Four Democrats crossed party lines and voted with Republicans.

Partisan tensions rose in the days after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN he would not schedule a vote for Lynch until an otherwise bipartisan human trafficking bill -- stalled over an abortion provision opposed by most Democrats -- passes the chamber. The delay may mean the Senate runs out of time to consider Lynch's nomination ahead of the two-week Easter recess, so she may not get a vote before mid-April.

The 159-day delay for a vote since Obama nominated her is the longest since 1985 when the Senate took more than a year to confirm President Ronald Reagan's nominee Edwin Meese, according to Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.

McConnell is expected to keep the bill on the floor for at least the rest of this week and try to build public and political pressure on Democrats to drop their objections to the abortion language.

READ: McConnell says no Lynch vote unless Democrats relent

The impasse comes at a time when Republicans in Congress are trying to show it can govern effectively after struggling last month to pass a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

In unusually harsh terms, White House spokesman Josh Earnest blasted McConnell's treatment of Lynch on Monday, calling the delayed vote "unconscionable" and saying his handling of the human trafficking legislation was a sign of "inept leadership."

"There's not a single legitimate question that has been raised about her aptitude for this job," Earnest said at the White House briefing Monday. "Instead, all we've seen is a bunch of political obstruction from Republicans that, again, does not -- does not speak well of Republicans' efforts to run the Senate in an effective fashion."

Even likely Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton weighed in, saying in a pair of tweets: "Congressional trifecta against women today: 1) Blocking great nominee, 1st African American woman AG, for longer than any AG in 30 years......2) Playing politics with trafficking victims... 3) Threatening women's health & rights."

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Lynch standoff continues after Dems block vote on unrelated bill

ALBANY For the better part of four years, the relationship between the out-of-power Senate Democrats and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has been a lot like that bounce-back clown punching bag.

Cuomo would punch, the senators would fall down, and then, like the bop bag, bounce back up for more.

No longer, Senate Democrats say. They have seen their future, and it does not rest with the Democratic governor.

Whether the public chill lasts is not known, but Democrats say they will have to think twice before doing any legislative favors for Cuomo.

Its clear that there is not a desire on the executives part to be inclusive of the opinion of Senate Democrats, said Sen. Michael N. Gianaris, D-Queens.

Even though they are in the minority, Senate Democrats provided the votes Cuomo needed in his first term to get two signature laws through the Senate: legalizing same-sex marriage and sharply expanding gun control.

Yet they have never felt Cuomos love. In 2012, he broke an earlier campaign promise to improve the way in which legislative district boundaries are drawn once a decade, a process that has helped the GOP keep control of the Senate.

Most observers would agree that our conference has bent over backwards to work with the governor of our own party the last couple of years, but if its clear that our voices are going to be shut out of the process, we will find other ways to express our priorities, Gianaris said.

In recent weeks, with state budget talks underway, Senate Democrats say Cuomo snubbed them by failing to invite Senate Minority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, of Westchester County, into the closed-door negotiations.

Members of the minority party are not usually a part of those talks. Albanys long history of three-men in a room is now four men in a room, featuring Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie, D-Bronx; Senate Majority Leader Dean G. Skelos, R-Rockville Centre; and Sen. Jeffrey D. Klein, D-Bronx, leader of the Senates Independent Democratic Conference.

Excerpt from:
Senate Democrats distance themselves from Cuomo

Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked an anti-human trafficking bill over a controversial anti-abortion provision.

The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, which would levy heavier penalties against convicted sex and labor traffickers, initially had bipartisan support. However, the Republican majority is "insisting on an ant-choice provision that has no business being in this bill," Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, charged ahead of Tuesday's vote.

Specifically, the controversial provision would block money in a new victims' fund from paying for abortions. The provision goes further than similar anti-abortion clauses that Republicans have added to past laws, Democrats say.

Play Video

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, urges the senate to act on a bill that would help victims of sex and labor trafficking.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said after the vote that the Senate would take the measure up again. "We're going to stay on this bill, it's important to the victims of trafficking," he said.

Until the Senate finishes work on this bill, McConnell said he's postponing a confirmation vote on President Obama's attorney general nominee, Loretta Lynch.

"She will be considered just as soon as we consider this very important bill," the majority leader said.

Democrats on Tuesday morning slammed McConnell for linking Lynch's confirmation to the trafficking bill -- an issue that "has nothing to do with confirming the next attorney general," Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, said.

Nineteen days have passed since the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmed Lynch's nomination, Democrats noted, yet it's unclear when the full Senate will vote on her nomination. By comparison, the last five attorney general nominees had to wait a combined total of 18 days for their confirmation votes. Lynch is "being held up longer than anybody else -- why?" Stabenow asked.

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Abortion rule foils Senate's progress on anti-trafficking bill

Are Iran nuclear talks hurting Democrats?
Political Insiders on potential impact in 2016.

By: Fox News

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Are Iran nuclear talks hurting Democrats? - Video

Celebrating National Apprenticeship Week
Liberal Democrats in government have created more than 2 million apprenticeships, helping people of all ages develop new skills and helping British businesse...

By: Liberal Democrats

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Celebrating National Apprenticeship Week - Video