Loretta Lynch(Photo: Saul Loeb, AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to advance Loretta Lynch to be the nation's next attorney general, overcoming Republican objections to her support of President Obama's executive action on immigration.
Lynch's committee approval, by a vote of 12-8, sets up final consideration by the full Senate.
The panel's vote comes nearly a month after a confirmation hearing in which the 55-year-old career federal prosecutor promised to repair the Justice Department's strained relationship with Congress and confront simmering racial tensions over law enforcement's dealings in minority communities across the country.
"Finally, finally, finally,'' said the panel's ranking Democrat, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont. "I've been here 40 years and no attorney general has ever had to wait this long for a vote.''
The long-pending committee vote, however, featured a renewed debate over an issue that dominated her confirmation hearing: immigration.
Related: 5 Things To Watch For In Loretta Lynch's Confirmation Hearing
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., cited Lynch's support of the legal foundation offered for the administration's executive action that would shield millions of illegal immigrants from deportation as the primary reason for his opposition to the nominee.
A federal judge has issued an injunction to block the president's action, and the Justice Department is challenging that ruling.
"It's time for Congress to say no,'' Sessions said.
But Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said Lynch represented a "completely unblemished nominee.''
"Not one witness could be produced to oppose her nomination,'' Whitehouse said, adding that her standing as the first African-American woman who would assume the office "is significant in our history.''
Related:AG Nominee, Greensboro Native Faces Senate This Week
Whitehouse urged his colleagues not to "punish'' the nominee because she differed with Republican senators on the legality of the immigration action.
Lynch did win the support of some Republicans, including Utah's Orrin Hatch, Arizona's Jeff Flake and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
"She is qualified by any reasonable standard,'' Graham said, acknowledging his strong disagreement with the administration's immigration policy. "The courts are the right place for this (immigration dispute) to be resolved ... I'm gonna vote for this lady because I feel she is qualified."
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