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Senate Democrats blocked getting to a vote on an anti-human trafficking bill Tuesday after objecting to restrictions on funding for abortions. Democrats said Republicans put it in the bill without their knowledge.

The vote was 55 to 43, but needed 60 votes to pass. Four Democrats crossed party lines and voted with Republicans.

Partisan tensions rose in the days after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN he would not schedule a vote for Lynch until an otherwise bipartisan human trafficking bill -- stalled over an abortion provision opposed by most Democrats -- passes the chamber. The delay may mean the Senate runs out of time to consider Lynch's nomination ahead of the two-week Easter recess, so she may not get a vote before mid-April.

The 159-day delay for a vote since Obama nominated her is the longest since 1985 when the Senate took more than a year to confirm President Ronald Reagan's nominee Edwin Meese, according to Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.

McConnell is expected to keep the bill on the floor for at least the rest of this week and try to build public and political pressure on Democrats to drop their objections to the abortion language.

READ: McConnell says no Lynch vote unless Democrats relent

The impasse comes at a time when Republicans in Congress are trying to show it can govern effectively after struggling last month to pass a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

In unusually harsh terms, White House spokesman Josh Earnest blasted McConnell's treatment of Lynch on Monday, calling the delayed vote "unconscionable" and saying his handling of the human trafficking legislation was a sign of "inept leadership."

"There's not a single legitimate question that has been raised about her aptitude for this job," Earnest said at the White House briefing Monday. "Instead, all we've seen is a bunch of political obstruction from Republicans that, again, does not -- does not speak well of Republicans' efforts to run the Senate in an effective fashion."

Even likely Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton weighed in, saying in a pair of tweets: "Congressional trifecta against women today: 1) Blocking great nominee, 1st African American woman AG, for longer than any AG in 30 years......2) Playing politics with trafficking victims... 3) Threatening women's health & rights."

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Lynch standoff continues