Senate Confirms Loretta Lynch as Next Attorney General
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Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call(WASHINGTON) — The Senate confirmed Loretta Lynch as the next attorney general Thursday, 166 days after she was first nominated for the post.
The Senate approved Lynch’s nomination with a vote of 56 to 43.
The Senate took over five months to confirm Lynch after her nomination was mired in political fights. President Obama nominated Lynch shortly after Republicans won control of the Senate in the mid-term elections in November, and in an gesture of goodwill, Democrats offered to wait to consider Lynch’s nomination until Republicans took control in January.
But Lynch quickly became embroiled in political fights between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate over issues like the president’s immigration executive actions and an anti-human trafficking bill.
Republicans insisted the human trafficking bill be passed before a vote on Lynch’s nomination. On Wednesday, the Senate unanimously passed the measure to help victims of human trafficking with a vote of 99 to 0 after Democrats and Republicans struck a deal on a controversial abortion funding restriction included in the measure.
Lynch, who currently serves as a U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, will be the first African American woman to serve as attorney general.
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