Avril Haines confirmed by US Senate as first female national intelligence chief
The US Senate has approved Joe Biden’s nomination of Avril Haines, making her the first woman to be director of national intelligence, and the first of the president’s picks to be approved.
The vote was 84-10, with all the “no” votes coming from Republicans.
Both Democrats and leading Republicans issued statements praising the nominee. Among Republicans voting against Haines were senators reputed to have party leadership ambitions; Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri.
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Haines, a former CIA deputy director, will become a core member of Biden’s security team, overseeing the agencies that make up the nation’s intelligence community. She succeeds John Ratcliffe, a Texas Republican and Trump loyalist who was widely regarded as having too little experience for the position.
Praising Haines, Mark Warner, the Virginia Democrat who will chair the intelligence committee in the new Senate, said: “After being deliberately undermined for four years, the intelligence community deserves a strong, Senate-confirmed leader to lead and reinvigorate it.”
Marco Rubio, the acting outgoing Republican chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said in a statement: “Our adversaries will not stand by and wait for the new administration to staff critical positions, and I am pleased my Senate colleagues joined me in swiftly confirming director Haines to this important post.”
Ron Wyden, a committee Democrat who has regularly criticised spy agency activities, said he voted for Haines after her response to questions, including how spy agencies treat whistleblowers and concerns he raised about how the CIA had spied on committee officials when they were working on a report detailing the agency’s use of harsh interrogation techniques, which critics described as torture.
During an intelligence committee confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Haines said the United States should take an “aggressive stance” toward the threat posed by an aggressive and assertive China.
She also told the panel Biden has indicated the United States should find a way to impose costs on cyber attackers for the recent SolarWinds hack, attributed to Russia, on US government agencies and businesses. Russia has denied responsibility.