WASHINGTON – The Senate confirmed President Biden’s choice to lead the vast US intelligence community on Wednesday, handing the newly inaugurated first cabinet secretary confirmed by the Senate to the newly inaugurated president.
Avril Haines is the first woman to become director of national intelligence, a job that oversees 18 intelligence agencies and units, including the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, which employs hundreds of thousands of federal and contract employees.
The Senate voted 84-10 to confirm Ms. Haines, with only Republicans opposing her nomination.
Biden’s advisers said it is imperative for the new president to have his national security team in place as soon as possible to deal with threats ranging from the extremist domestic violence of the kind that was on display during the attack on the United States Capitol, two weeks ago, to a suspected Russian hack from large areas of the federal government. The Senate is expected to act in the coming days on some of Biden’s other nominees.
“This position is of such critical importance to the country that it is only appropriate that it will be the first nomination of the new Biden government to be confirmed by the Senate,” said Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the next Democratic leader of the Senate Intelligence Committee.