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In this Jan. 28, 2015, file photo, Loretta Lynch testifies on Capitol Hill during her confirmation hearing.(Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, AP)
WASHINGTON — Five months after her nomination, Loretta Lynch is set to finally receive a confirmation vote in the Senate.
Lynch, whose nomination languished longer than the previous seven attorneys general combined, would become the first African American woman to hold the job and the nation's 83rd chief law enforcement officer.
The Senate is scheduled to hold a vote late this morning that would cut off further debate on her nomination. If that measure garners sufficient support, a final vote on her confirmation is set to be held around 2 p.m. ET. She is expected to have enough Republican backing to secure the majority vote needed to be confirmed.
The long-delayed vote for Lynch, Brooklyn's chief federal prosecutor, has prompted a firestorm of criticism from Democrats and some Republicans, highlighting a political paralysis that increasingly grips the Capitol.
Her confirmation has been held up in recent weeks over a month-long impasse in the Senate over legislation aimed at curbing human trafficking.
That bill, which wasn't initially thought to be controversial, became entangled in a dispute over abortion language. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the Senate would not move forward with a vote on Lynch until the trafficking legislation was dispensed with. On Wednesday, a compromise measure was approved unanimously by the Senate, clearing the way for a vote on Lynch.
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Last week, President Obama called the process "crazy'' and "embarrassing.''
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Nominated by Obama in November, Lynch emerged largely unscathed from two days of confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee in January when Democrats emphasized the nominee's glittering legal resume, including two-stints as the U.S. attorney in the busy Eastern District of New York. Republicans, meanwhile, seized on her support for the president's controversial executive action on immigration that would shield millions of illegal immigrants from deportation.
Republicans pressed Lynch repeatedly on her interpretation of the immigration action, and each time Lynch offered a similar response, saying she saw "no reason to doubt the reasonableness.'' She also suggested that an "appropriate'' use of law enforcement resources involved focusing on the removal of illegal immigrants linked to violent crime.
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The responses left many Republican senators unsatisfied.
"I have a huge concern that you think that the (immigration action) is within the law,'' said Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who has long vowed to oppose Lynch's nomination.
If confirmed, Lynch, 55, would arrive at a sprawling Justice Department with myriad issues competing for her attention.
She has promised to repair the Justice Department's strained relationship with Congress, which frequently sparred with Holder. The the low point came in 2012 when the outgoing attorney general became the first sitting cabinet member to be held in contempt of Congress.
Lynch also has vowed to confront the long-simmering racial tensions involving law enforcement's dealings in minority communities.
Almost every week, a new video emerges showing police engaged in a questionable encounter with a black suspect. During Holder's tenure, Justice has launched more than 20 reviews of police agencies to determine whether their operations involve a pattern and/or practice of discriminatory enforcement. Separately prosecutors have weighed the actions of individual police officers in the deaths of unarmed black suspects, including in Lynch's federal district of Staten Island.
Earlier this week, the Justice Department launched yet another inquiry into a fatal encounter involving a 25-year-old man whose arrest by Baltimore police led to a broken spinal cord.
There also is deep concern across the country about an aggressive effort by the Islamic State, or ISIL, to recruit U.S. residents to the fight in Syria. At least 35 such foreign fighter cases have been brought by the Justice Department in recent months, the most recent earlier this week when six young Minnesota men were charged with attempting to travel to Syria.
Supporters have long argued that Lynch's government career, mostly spent in the trenches of the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's Office — a jurisdiction that includes Queens, Staten Island and Long Island — has prepared her to serve as attorney general.
"You're not Eric Holder, are you?'' Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, asked during Lynch's confirmation hearing. "How are you going to be different?''
"If confirmed as attorney general,'' Lynch said, "I will be myself.''
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