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 was confirmed Thursday by the U.S. Senate to serve as attorney general.
The final vote was 56 to 43.
Lynch, whose nomination languished longer than the previous seven attorneys general combined, becomes the first African American woman to hold the job and the nation's 83rd chief law enforcement officer. She is expected to be sworn in Monday.
Her confirmation was not in doubt after enough Republicans publicly announced their support to secure the simple majority needed for confirmation.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was one of 10 Republicans who supported Lynch. The others were: Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Orrin Hatch of Utah, Mark Kirk of Illinois and Rob Portman of Ohio.
The long-delayed vote for Lynch, Brooklyn's chief federal prosecutor, had prompted a firestorm of criticism from Democrats and some Republicans, highlighting a political paralysis that often grips the Capitol.
Her confirmation had been held up in recent weeks over a month-long impasse in the Senate over legislation aimed at curbing human trafficking.
That otherwise uncontroversial trafficking bill became entangled in a dispute over abortion language included in the measure that caught Democrats by surprise. McConnell said the Senate would not move forward with a vote on Lynch until the trafficking legislation was approved. The impasse and a two-week Easter recess further delayed Lynch's nomination.
On Wednesday, however, a compromise trafficking measure was approved unanimously by the Senate, clearing the way for a vote on Lynch.
Following her confirmation, Obama said the nation "will be better off for it.''
"Loretta has spent her life fighting for the fair and equal justice that is the foundation of our democracy,'' the president said in a written statement.
Attorney General Eric Holder, whose departure also was delayed by the Senate's inaction, said he was "pleased'' that the Senate "recognized her clear qualifications and the need for her confirmation.''
"Loretta Lynch is a gifted attorney, a consummate professional, and a dedicated public servant,'' Holder said
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 résumé, 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.
The responses left many Republican senators unsatisfied.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who is running for president, reiterated his opposition on the floor Thursday morning. "This nominee has given every indication that she will continue the Holder Justice Department's lawlessness," he said. "I wanted to see a new attorney general who would be faithful to the law, but her answers made that impossible."
However, Cruz was absent for the final vote.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., called GOP criticisms of Lynch a "base politics play to the cheap seats."
Lynch, 55, will 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 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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