The US Senate has confirmed John Ratcliffe as CIA director, giving President Donald Trump the second member of his new Cabinet.
Mr Ratcliffe was director of national intelligence during Mr Trump’s first term and is the first person to have held that position and the top post at the CIA, the nation’s premier spy agency.
The Texas Republican is a former federal prosecutor who emerged as a fierce Trump defender while serving as a congressman during Mr Trump’s first impeachment.
The vote was 74-25.
At his Senate hearing last week, Mr Ratcliffe said the CIA must do better when it comes to using technology such as artificial intelligence to confront adversaries including Russia and China.
He said the United States needed to improve its intelligence capabilities while also ensuring the protection of Americans’ civil rights.
Mr Ratcliffe said that if confirmed, he would push the CIA to do more to harness technologies such as AI and quantum computing while expanding use of human intelligence collection.
“We’re not where we’re supposed to be,” Mr Ratcliffe told members of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Democrats raised questions about Mr Ratcliffe’s objectivity and whether his loyalty to Mr Trump would prompt him to politicise his position and blind him to the duties of the job.
Concerns from Democrat Senator Chris Murphy forced the Senate’s Republican leaders to postpone Mr Ratcliffe’s confirmation vote, which was originally scheduled for Tuesday.
Former Florida senator Marco Rubio was confirmed earlier this week as secretary of state, the first member of Mr Trump’s Cabinet.
Mr Ratcliffe has said he views China as America’s greatest geopolitical rival, and that Russia, Iran, North Korea and drug cartels, hacking gangs and terrorist organisations also pose challenges to national security.
He supports the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a government spying programme that allows authorities to collect without warrant the communications of non-Americans outside the country.
If those people are communicating with Americans, those conversations can be swept up, too, which has led to questions about violations of personal rights.
Mr Trump and other Republicans have criticised the work of the CIA and other spy agencies, saying they have focused too much on climate change, workforce diversity and other issues.
The calls for a broad overhaul have worried some current and former intelligence officials who say the changes could make the country less safe.
Like other Trump nominees, Mr Ratcliffe is a Trump loyalist. Aside from his work to defend Mr Trump during his first impeachment proceedings, Mr Ratcliffe also forcefully questioned former special counsel Robert Mueller when he gave evidence about his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
As director of national intelligence, Mr Ratcliffe oversaw and co-ordinated the work of more than a dozen spy agencies. Among other duties, the office directs efforts to detect and counter foreign efforts to influence US politics.
Mr Trump picked Mr Ratcliffe to serve in that position in 2019, but he quickly withdrew from consideration after politicians raised questions about his qualifications. He was ultimately confirmed by a sharply divided Senate after Mr Trump resubmitted the nomination.
In that job, Mr Ratcliffe was accused by Democrats of politicising intelligence when he declassified Russian intelligence that purported to reveal information about Democrats during the 2016 election even as he acknowledged the information might not be accurate.
Mr Trump’s second-term nominee for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, faces a tougher road to confirmation. Ms Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, has faced bipartisan criticism over past comments supportive of Russia and 2017 meetings with then-Syrian president Bashar Assad.
Later on Thursday, it emerged that Pete Hegseth, Mr Trump’s nominee for defence secretary, paid 50,000 dollars (£40,4950 to the woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017, according to answers he provided to a senator during his confirmation process that The Associated Press has obtained.
The answers were provided to Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren in response to additional questions she had for Mr Hegseth as part of the vetting process.
Mr Hegseth’s lawyer Timothy Parlatore declined to comment on the figure on Thursday.
Mr Hegseth told police at the time that the encounter had been consensual and denied any wrongdoing. He told senators during his confirmation hearing last week that he was “falsely accused” in the 2017 incident and completely cleared.
The news of the payment amount comes the same day the Senate advanced Mr Hegseth’s nomination along a party-line vote.
Two Republicans, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Senator Susan Collins of Maine, broke with Mr Trump and voted against Mr Hegseth, who also has faced allegations of excessive drinking and being abusive to his second wife, which he denies.