The Senate advanced on Monday evening the nomination of Jay Clayton to serve as Director of National Intelligence.
The 51-43 procedural vote fell along party lines. A final confirmation vote is expected Tuesday night.
“Amid a heightened threat environment, having a proven leader in this role is especially important,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican. “Jay Clayton fits the mold.”
He praised Mr. Clayton for his work on national intelligence issues as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In his current role, Mr. Clayton led the indictment of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and prosecuted an Iran-backed terrorist connected to multiple plots against the United States.
As SEC chairman, his work included protecting financial services infrastructure from cyberattacks and combating Chinese influence on financial markets.
While some Democrats worked well with Mr. Clayton during his time at the SEC and supported his nomination for U.S. attorney, they turned on him after his confirmation hearing for the DNI role.
Under repeated questioning, Mr. Clayton declined to directly state that Joseph R. Biden won the 2020 presidential election. The closest he got was saying Mr. Biden “followed our process, had the most electoral votes, was declared the winner.”
Sen. Mark R. Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, called the performance “bitterly disappointing” and said he could not vote to confirm Mr. Clayton despite working well with him during his tenure as SEC chairman.
“I hope he will become the guy I used to work with,” he told reporters Monday, saying Mr. Clayton should at least be a “vast improvement” over acting DNI William J. Pulte, a Trump loyalist who also leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Mr. Pulte stepped into the acting intelligence role last month after DNI Tulsi Gabbard resigned to help her husband through cancer treatment.
He has led a downsizing of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees 18 intelligence agencies across the federal government.
Mr. Pulte announced Sunday that he just finished a fourth round of “thoughtful, measured layoffs” intended to refocus ODNI “on national security, the law, and the statute.”
Mr. Thune accused Democrats of “partisan games” in opposing Mr. Clayton’s nomination, calling it “a funny thing” given their open disdain for Mr. Pulte.
“Democrats were so worked up over the president’s temporary choice for this position, they allowed our nation’s most important counterterrorism tool to go dark for the first time ever,” he said.
Mr. Thune said he hopes once Mr. Clayton is confirmed that Democrats will stop blocking reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The modern wiretapping law lets the government spy on foreign targets without a warrant and has been used to thwart terrorist plots and drug traffickers.
Mr. Warner said Democrats will be willing to entertain the FISA reauthorization after a new DNI is in place but it “was always going to be a lift.”
“A majority of my caucus probably won’t support it,” he said. “But those of us who are in this national security environment understand it’s got to get done.”
Mr. Warner said he does not see the FISA reauthorization passing before the Senate’s summer recess, “but we’re not under the time crunch that we anticipated because the communication providers are still cooperative.”
