Senate Democrats are stepping up pressure on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to hold a vote this week on the confirmation of Loretta Lynch to be the next U.S. attorney general.
Democrats said Sunday that McConnell, of Kentucky, should hold a confirmation vote on Monday, even though McConnell wants to continue debating a stalled human trafficking bill.
“The Senate can debate legislation and vote on nominations at the same time — and to say otherwise is merely a hollow excuse,” Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Sunday.
A vote on Lynch has been stalled in the Senate for weeks, mostly due to GOP objections over Lynch’s support for President Obama’s recent actions on immigration.
But a planned vote for the coming week could be postponed thanks to a partisan dispute over a human trafficking bill. Democrats last week suddenly objected to the bill even though they had approved it unanimously in committee and 13 of them served as co-sponsors. Democrats noticed language in the bill banning the funding of abortion with the legislation’s $30 million in restitution funds.
Now they are threatening to filibuster the bill on Tuesday.
McConnell said if Democrats block the bill, it could postpone a vote on Lynch.
“This will have an impact on the timing of considering the new attorney general,” McConnell said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday. “Now, I had hoped to turn to her next week, but, if we can’t finish the trafficking bill, she will be put off again.”
In addition to Leahy, both Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., are demanding McConnell hold a vote on Lynch, who was nominated Nov. 8 to replace Attorney General Eric Holder.
“For months and months, Republicans have failed to move forward with her nomination using any excuse they can, except for any credible objection to her nomination itself,” Schumer said. “It’s time for Republicans to stop dragging their feet on Loretta Lynch. Loretta Lynch, and the American people, don’t deserve this. At a time when terrorists from [the Islamic State] to Al-Shabaab threaten the United States, the nominee to be attorney general deserves an up or down vote.”
Reid said Lynch has waited longer for a confirmation vote than any other nominee for attorney general in three decades.
“There is nothing stopping the Senate from confirming Lynch and continuing to debate the trafficking bill this week, except Senator McConnell’s unwillingness to bring her nomination up for a vote,” Reid said.
