President Barack Obama sharply criticized Senate Republicans on Saturday for delaying a vote on Loretta Lynch as the nation’s attorney general, urging them to “stop playing politics with law enforcement and national security.”

“You don’t hold attorney general nominees hostage for other issues. This is our top law enforcement office,” Obama told the Huffington Post.

“Even the Republicans acknowledge [Lynch has] been a great prosecutor,” the President continued. “She has prosecuted terrorists in New York, she has gone after organized crime, she’s gone after public corruption. Her integrity is unimpeachable. By all accounts, she’s a great manager, and the fact that she has now been lingering in this limbo for longer than the five previous attorney general nominees combined, makes no sense. We need to go ahead and get this done.”

In the President’s weekly address to the nation, he also urged Senate Republicans to vote on Lynch’s nomination in order to finish “the longest confirmation process for an attorney general in three decades.” He noted that “Republicans promised that Congress would function smoothly with them in charge,” and “Here’s a chance for them to prove it.”

Last week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell verified that a vote to confirm Lynch would be put off until its members pass an anti-human-trafficking bill, which has stalled due to an anti-abortion provision opposed by Democrats.

“This will have an impact on the timing of considering a new attorney general,” McConnell said on CNN Sunday’s State of the Union, “I had hoped to turn to her next week, but if we can’t finish the trafficking bill, she will be put off again.”

Lynch was nominated as U.S. attorney general November 2014. Current Attorney General Eric Holder will stay in office until Lynch is confirmed.