Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona, a senior Judiciary Committee Republican, said Tuesday that GOP efforts to track down records from Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's stint in the Clinton White House could slow efforts to consider the nomination on the timeline sought by Senate Democrats.

"It is really dependent on cooperation from the administration getting information to us," Kyl said. "I think Elena Kagan has tried to be cooperative in that regard. But since some of the records would relate to the Clinton administration and her two positions there, we will have to get approval from somebody to release those records so that we can understand what she did in those positions. The only delay I can see right now might be dependent on how quickly that can be done," Kyl told reporters.

Kagan served under Clinton from 1997 to 1999 as a legal and domestic policy adviser.

Asked if it is essential for Republicans to review Kagan's work under Clinton, Kyl said, "It is very important. On her resume she said she had an important policy position, so I think it is important for us to know what her role was."

Kyl said internal documents from Kagan's work as solicitor general could be treated somewhat differently. "Some of the legal advice within the department would not be necessary for us to see," he said. "I think what we need to know there is simply what decisions did she make in the year that she has been solicitor general about which cases to take and which cases not to, and what the government's position would be."

"As long as she can tell us about that, and I suspect she can -- my guess is she is eager to tell us about that -- that should suffice for that purpose," Kyl said.