The select committee voted 14-3 in a closed hearing on Jan. 20 to recommend that the Senate take a full vote to confirm Ratcliffe.
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has voted to move forward with John Ratcliffe’s nomination to be the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
The select committee voted 14–3 in a closed hearing on Jan. 20 to recommend that the Senate take a full vote to confirm Ratcliffe.
Ratcliffe could become the second of President Donald Trump’s appointees to be confirmed, following the approval of Marco Rubio for Secretary of State in a 99–0 vote on Jan. 20.
Committee chair Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and vice chair Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) urged the Senate to take up Ratcliffe’s nomination with haste following the committee’s approval.
“Our world is far too dangerous for any delay in having a Senate-confirmed leader in charge of the CIA. We urge expeditious consideration of this important nomination,” the lawmakers said in a statement shared with The Epoch Times.
Ratcliffe previously served as Director of National Intelligence (DNI) during the first Trump administration and has also served as a U.S. House representative for Texas. While in Congress, he was a member of the House Intelligence Committee and the House Judiciary Committee.
After serving as DNI, Ratcliffe remained a consistent defender of Trump, including against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s indictment of Trump, unsealed in the spring of 2023.
“Legitimate law schools will forever use this indictment to teach the concept of prosecutorial abuse of discretion,” Ratcliffe wrote on social media platform X at the time.
During a confirmation hearing before the intelligence committee last week, Ratcliffe testified that he would employ “the ultimate meritocracy” throughout the agency and would seek to remove what he considered a “politically motivated, bureaucratically imposed social justice agenda” that distracts from the agency’s core mission.
“I will unapologetically empower the most talented, hardest working, and most courageous risk-takers and innovators to protect the American people and advance America’s interests. And I will not tolerate anything or anyone that distracts from our mission,” Ratcliffe said.
Ratcliffe also said that he would prioritize intelligence collection and the development of an offensive cyber strategy against U.S. adversaries in communist China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.
The approval of Ratcliffe by the committee was quickly followed by votes in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to advance two other Trump nominees: Kristi Noem for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary and Russ Vought for Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director.
The committee advanced Noem’s nomination on a 13–2 vote and Vought’s by an 8–7 vote.