WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Thursday delayed a committee vote on attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch for two weeks, provoking outrage from Democrats who said her nomination has been pending “longer than any modern attorney general nominee.”

Lynch was nominated by President Obama on Nov. 8, six weeks after Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced he was stepping down.

Many had urged Obama to move more quickly so that his nominee could be approved before the new Senate took over in January, but the administration instead waited until after the midterm congressional elections on Nov. 4, when Republicans won control of the Senate.

She was re-nominated Jan. 7.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the new chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, moved quickly to hold hearings on Lynch at the end of January, but announced Thursday that there would be a delay on the vote to seek responses from Lynch to senators’ questions. The delay is only for a week, but the Senate will be in recess next week, leading to a two-week hiatus.

While there is little controversy about Lynch’s record, Republicans have used her confirmation hearings to complain about Holder and also Obama’s policies on immigration.

Her eventual confirmation, after a committee vote now scheduled for Feb. 26, seems assured.


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