Senate must confirm Loretta Lynch now

Partisan squabbling has cost us all a lot in recent years. It cost the country opportunities to help struggling families during a punishing recession. It cost women the advances we need on fair pay, paid family and medical leave, paid sick days, and much more. It cost Congress the respect of many, many Americans. And right now, it’s costing us the chance to come together behind an attorney general whose confirmation would send a message, both meaningful and symbolic, that our lawmakers are united in wanting to put eminently qualified public servants in positions in which they will excel.

It was early November when President Obama nominated Loretta Lynch to serve as the country’s next attorney general. She was an impressive choice – a veteran prosecutor who had earned enormous and well-deserved respect throughout her career – whose extraordinary skills, vigorous defense of civil and human rights, tenacity in protecting consumers, and deep commitment to making our country more fair had impressed people across backgrounds, professions and political parties.

{mosads}But four months later, the Senate has yet to vote on her nomination. She has waited longer for a confirmation vote than any other attorney general nominee in recent history – for absolutely no good reason.

That’s inexcusable.

Lynch is highly qualified to serve as the country’s attorney general. She has served two administrations with distinction. She received bipartisan support from the Senate Judiciary Committee.

And her background is inspiring. She is the daughter of a librarian who once picked cotton to earn money for college, and the granddaughter of a rural North Carolina sharecropper. Lynch herself went to Harvard and Harvard Law School, and distinguished herself with extraordinary accomplishments throughout what has been a remarkable career.

She would be the kind of tenacious, fair, highly effective attorney general the country needs. And she would be a role model for a generation – the first African American woman ever to hold the post.

At this moment in history, when we have had so many reminders that discrimination still pervades our workplaces and communities, confirmation of Lynch to serve as attorney general would send a powerful and badly needed message that lawmakers can put aside partisanship and petty squabbling when so much is at stake. That should happen this week. There’s simply no excuse for further delays.

Ness is president of the National Partnership for Women & Families.