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Good Thursday morning from Washington. President Obama gave a climate change speech in Florida on Wednesday for Earth Day, but Speaker John A. Boehner had something else on his mind. Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor, uses trade against Hillary Rodham Clinton, but most eyes in Washington are on the Senate, where a long-delayed vote is at last on the to-do list.

Loretta E. Lynch is finally scheduled to get her moment on the Senate floor on Thursday, and unless something totally unexpected happens, she is headed for narrow approval as the nation’s 83rd attorney general.

Ms. Lynch, who has experienced a record delay in her nomination process, will first face a preliminary test vote. Under a change in Senate practices engineered by Democrats in 2013, she needs only a simple majority to force a final vote, a threshold that used to require 60 votes. But here’s a wrinkle: Republicans who adamantly opposed the change in filibuster rules for executive branch nominees are trying to assemble 60 votes on the procedural vote despite the party’s widespread opposition to Ms. Lynch.

Republicans say that allowing the nomination to move forward on a simple majority would be tantamount to endorsing the rule change, which they consider illegitimate. While it was uncertain if their effort could succeed, lawmakers and aides said that Republicans were scouring for votes.

In the past, it was not uncommon for senators to vote to cut off debate on a nomination and still oppose the nominee. But now, with the rising level of partisanship in the Senate, the situation is rare.

The rules change might not be the only factor at work. Some senators such as John McCain, Republican of Arizona, have argued in the past that a president’s nominees are entitled to a vote even if a senator intended to ultimately oppose them.

— Carl Hulse

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As college campuses continue to grapple with how to improve their responses to sexual assaults, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. will give a speech at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on initiatives to help prevent the assaults.

Mr. Obama hosts the New England Patriots, the Super Bowl champions, at the White House.

Mrs. Clinton will deliver a speech at the Women in the World conference in New York, which is hosted by Tina Brown and is an annual stop for Mrs. Clinton to discuss women’s rights.

Mr. O’Malley, a Democrat, has been more combative with Mrs. Clinton as he inches toward his own presidential run, but he has taken his hardest swats at her over the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a potential trade agreement.

The latest came on Wednesday in a fund-raising email with the subject line, “Hard Choice?” seemingly a reference to the title of Mrs. Clinton’s book about being secretary of state.

The body of the email answered the question: “Nope. To me, opposing bad trade deals like TPP is just common sense. Trade is critical to growing our economy, but fast-tracking TPP means entering into a deal that could depress wages and cost us jobs.”

Mrs. Clinton has demurred on the trade deal, setting conditions by which she would consider it acceptable, but stopping short of a clear endorsement. She also voiced support for the deal in its inception while she was at the State Department.

But then again, Mr. O’Malley was also once open to the deal. At the Washington Conference on the Americas in May 2013, Mr. O’Malley was asked about the proposed deal.

“I would hazard to guess that a majority of us believe that free trade, provided it’s fair — and that’s always the rub, right? — is a net benefit for us,” Mr. O’Malley said.

O’Malley aides say that the central element of his comment then was that the deal must be “fair.” The current deal has been fast-tracked, obscuring its contents, and some potential supporters have turned away, they argue.

Yet Mr. O’Malley’s older comments highlight how complicated such issues can be for challengers to Mrs. Clinton from the left, especially those with elected records of their own.

— Maggie Haberman

As President Obama took flight on Wednesday to the Florida Everglades for an Earth Day event on climate change, many environmentalists were not too happy.

The trip came as he is pushing a trade deal that environmental groups say will be a boon to big companies and could unravel safeguards against toxic chemicals and the very global warming he went to Florida to speak against.

“On Earth Day, we must take a stand against the polluted TPA trade process, take back our democracy and protect our environment,” one group, Friends of the Earth, posted on Twitter, referring to the Trade Promotion Authority.

Expressing a similar sentiment, the climate group 350.org called the potential agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a “secret trade deal” that would attack the planet and democracy.

The Obama administration is pleading for patience from such groups, which help make up his traditional base. Eric Schultz, a spokesman for Mr. Obama, acknowledged that previous trade deals had not lived up to their hype, but said that this time would be different.

“That is the reason the president has been dogged in his determination to make sure that any deal that is reached includes the strongest not only environmental protections, but labor protections and human rights protections we’ve ever seen,” Mr. Schultz said.

Trade skeptics remain wary of the deal, however, and such promises are unlikely to make them breathe easier.

— Alan Rappeport

During his college years, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas was known as a formidable college debater who could occasionally be tripped up by his rivals’ humor.

As the same-sex marriage issue reaches the Supreme Court and opponents ponder their response, many legal and political experts say they do not expect the kind of backlash that followed decisions on school desegregation and abortion.

Mrs. Clinton‘s lawyer said there was no need for an interview in the House investigation on the attack in Benghazi, Libya.

The White House is trying to mend fences with Israel and limit the fallout for Democrats over what had become a deep rift.

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who on CBS on Sunday said homosexuality was “something that people are born with,” is reaching out to gay Republicans, Reuters reports.

Vox takes a look at the complicated politics and policy that made a Tea Party member say that the Affordable Care Act had made him, almost, want to vote for Mrs. Clinton.

And Fox News says that a Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan challenges Mr. Obama‘s narrative on progress in the country.

Democrats often like to use Earth Day to show their “green” credentials and celebrate the environment, but for Republicans who question climate change the holiday tends to pass with little fanfare.

On Earth Day this year, however, Mr. Boehner celebrated another occasion: National Jelly Bean Day.

In a video he posted on Wednesday, Mr. Boehner fished through a glass of jelly beans and said that the green ones, in fact, were his favorites.

While some wondered if the jelly bean salute was a slight to environmentalists, Mr. Boehner’s office said he meant no offense.

“It is a humorous way to celebrate Jelly Bean Day,” Kevin Smith, a spokesman, said. “Nothing to do with anything else.”

— Alan Rappeport