WASHINGTON — The Senate will not consider the nomination of Loretta E. Lynch to be attorney general until it moves forward on a stalled human trafficking bill, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, the majority leader, said Sunday.
“I had hoped to turn to her next week, but if we can’t finish the trafficking bill, she will be put off again,” he said on the CNN program “State of the Union.”
McConnell said last Tuesday that he would hold a vote this week on Lynch’s nomination, which is the next item on the Senate’s agenda and is otherwise unrelated to the human trafficking bill.
The Senate reached an unexpected stalemate last week on bipartisan legislation that would combat human trafficking when Democrats said they became aware of an antiabortion provision in the bill.
That provision would bar the use of criminal fines collected in a victims’ fund from being used to pay for abortions. Democrats said they would block the bill until Republicans removed the restriction, which Republicans said was in accordance with existing law.
The Senate is expected to vote to end debate Tuesday, which requires at least 60 votes. Republicans hold 54 seats.
It has been four months since President Obama chose Lynch, 55, the US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, to succeed Attorney General Eric Holder, whose outspoken, liberal approach to leading the Justice Department made him unpopular with many congressional Republicans. Holder is staying on until a replacement is confirmed.
Democrats have noted that Lynch has had one of the longest waits of any attorney general nominee in modern times.
The last to undergo such a lengthy confirmation process was Edwin Meese III, who was nominated by President Reagan in 1984 and waited more than a year during a Justice Department investigation into his business and personal dealings.
Adam Jentleson, spokesman for Senator Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, the minority leader, said there was no need for further delay.
“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,” he said in a statement.
“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,” Charles E. Schumer of New York, the Senate’s No. 3 Democrat, said in a statement.
McConnell said he has not decided whether to support Lynch, who has been criticized by conservatives for her assertion that Obama’s executive action on immigration was legal.
“I think the attorney general nominee is suffering from the president’s actions,” he said.
“It sounds like you are threatening to hold up Loretta Lynch, who has been in limbo for months and months,” said Dana Bash, host of “State of the Union.”
“It's not a threat,” McConnell said. “We need to finish this human-trafficking bill . . . so we have time to turn to the attorney general because the next week we’ll be doing the budget and the next two weeks after that, Congress is not in session.”