WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Jeff Sessions is naming 17 temporary U.S. attorneys to take the place of some of the dozens of Obama administration holdovers he ordered to resign last year.

Sessions was facing a deadline. The vacancies had been temporarily filled by prosecutors who are permitted to serve in that position for just 300 days. The White House still hasn't nominated anyone to serve permanently as top prosecutor in each of the 17 districts, including the Southern District of New York. That encompasses Manhattan, where Trump Tower is located.

The vacancies have left Sessions without politically appointed leaders in key regions to carry out his crime-fighting agenda. The temporary appointees can serve for 120 days before Trump must nominate their replacements and seek to have them confirmed by the Senate.