Midday Roundup: At loggerheads over abortion and an attorney general

Stalemate? Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is taking heat for holding up a vote on appointing Loretta Lynch as U.S. attorney general until Democrats agree to vote on a human trafficking bill that includes abortion-funding restrictions. “It’s not a threat,” McConnell told CNN’s State of the Union. “We need to finish that so we have time to turn to the attorney general. The next week we will be doing the budget, and the next two weeks after that, Congress is not in session.” The trafficking bill includes language that mirrors the longstanding Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal money from being used to fund abortions. But it also restricts using money from fines paid by traffickers, something Democrats oppose. McConnell is willing to vote on the abortion restrictions separately from the rest of the bill, but Democrats don’t have the votes to kill the measure. Minority Leader Harry Reid has threatened to filibuster the bill instead, unless Republicans remove the restrictions. Lynch, whose nomination was cleared by the Senate Judiciary Committee in a 12-8 vote, is caught in the middle.

Going green. Today the Irish, and the Irish-at-heart, celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with parades, shamrocks, and parties sloshing with green beer. Although the celebrations have become a global phenomenon, the revelry as we know it today is an American tradition. New York City held its first St. Patty’s Day parade 253 years ago. Today’s procession up Fifth Avenue started a little before noon and not without controversy. Mayor Bill de Blasio refused to participate because of the parade committee’s restrictions on participation from gay and lesbian groups. Although one group was allowed to march this year, others planned to protest from the sidelines. St. Patrick is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland and is known as the island’s patron saint. The celebration of his life became an official Christian feast day in the 17th century, but modern events are largely divorced from the original significance.

Good downgrade. Search-and-rescue teams say the death toll on the South Pacific archipelago Vanuatu is not as high as feared after a massive storm ripped through forests and flattened homes over the weekend. On Tanna, the island that bore the brunt of Cyclone Pam’s fury, 80 percent of structures are damaged, but only four people died. The official death toll across all 80 islands is 11, although that is expected to rise. Most of Tanna’s 29,000 residents took shelter in schools and churches, which kept them safe from the storm’s 185 mile-an-hour winds. Now officials are worried about dwindling food and water supplies.

No deal? A deal to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting Western sanctions is not as close as initially thought. In briefings today, officials did not sound optimistic that negotiators would be able to meet the March 31 deadline. Sticking points include a timeline for lifting the sanctions and how tightly Iran’s future research and development activities will be limited. Negotiators also disagree on monitoring the Islamic nation’s nuclear facilities. There remains “a long way to go if we are going to get there,” British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said after meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Monday afternoon. U.S. lawmakers hope to consider a bill before the end of the month that would enable Congress to vote on the deal. The White House says such a bill could kill the talks.