Sources: Obama's AG Pick Will Have to Wait for GOP-Controlled Senate Approval

Sources tell The Hill that President Obama will have to wait until January to get nominee Loretta Lynch past the Senate. A GOP led Senate.

“It seems likely [the Lynch vote] would be in the next Congress. It’s difficult to process an AG that quickly,” said a Democratic aide.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (R-NV) has not yet decided if the AG confirmation will be on the lame duck agenda, according to his spokesman Adam Jentleson. Growing opposition to Lynch makes it even more unlikely the confirmation process will have time to unfold. Future Senate Majority Leader  Mitch McConnell has promised a fair hearing. “Ms. Lynch will receive fair consideration by the Senate. And her nomination should be considered in the new Congress through regular order,” McConnell said in a statement.

The Republicans are opposed to moving the AG nomination through the Senate during lame duck and since Reid needs GOP support to move other items through the session, he is incentivized to put off the confirmation.

Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), a former chairman of the Judiciary Committee, cautioned in an op-ed last week not to rush the confirmation process.

“Properly considering a nominee to such a significant position as attorney general requires a full and fair process, something that is particularly hard to do in a post-election ‘lame-duck’ session,” Hatch wrote in The Washington Times.

“No one has been nominated and confirmed to be attorney general in a lame-duck session since before the Civil War,” he added.

On Sunday, Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) said Lynch would be expected to answer questions about Obama’s executive action on immigration. “She is going to have to specifically come to the Hill, talk about trying to get better relations between the departments and the Hill, and specifically answer questions about executive amnesty, is it legal, is it constitutional,” Barrasso said on “Fox News Sunday.”