© Tom Williams/Pool via APWilliam Burns, nominee for Central Intelligence Agency director, leaves after testifying during his Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing on Feb. 24.
The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved William Burns' nomination to be the next CIA director, setting him up for a full floor vote where he is expected to win confirmation.
The panel voted in a closed-door session to approve Burns, a veteran diplomat who most recently served as the deputy secretary of State in the Obama administration, to helm the clandestine agency by voice vote. His confirmation would fill one of the last senior national security posts still vacant more than a month after President Joe Biden was sworn into office.
Prior to the vote, Intelligence Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) told POLITICO that the panel would run a "hotline" - an expedited process to check for last-minute opposition to bringing a nominee or legislation to the floor for an immediate vote - on Burns' nomination.
CIA Deputy Director David Cohen is serving as acting director while Burns awaits confirmation.
At a cordial confirmation hearing last week, Burns, who previously helped steer secret nuclear negotiations with Iran and served as the U.S. ambassador to Russia, pledged that he would sharpen the CIA's focus on China, describing "an adversarial, predatory Chinese leadership" as the country's "biggest geopolitical test."
"For CIA, that will mean intensified focus and urgency - continually strengthening its already impressive cadre of China specialists, expanding its language skills, aligning personnel and resource allocation for the long haul," he told the Intelligence committee.
Burns, 64, would take over the CIA after four tumultuous years where former President Donald Trump publicly ridiculed the U.S. clandestine community's analysis on a range of national security issues, including Russian election interference and North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
Burns said last week that the agency's workforce would be one of his top priorities, along with improved technology and partnerships with other U.S. and foreign intelligence services.
He also said that over the course of his diplomatic career he had learned "politics must stop where intelligence work begins."
"That is exactly what President Biden expects of CIA. It was the first thing he told me when he asked me to take on this role. He said he wants the agency to give it to him straight and I pledged to do just that and to defend those who do the same," Burns told lawmakers.
In a statement, Warner urged the Senate to confirm Burns "without any unnecessary delay," saying that with the U.S. "facing so many challenges all around the globe, the men and women of the CIA deserve a Senate-confirmed director in place as soon as possible."