[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 79 (Tuesday, May 15, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S2673]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Nomination of Gina Haspel

  Mr. President, we have been getting some great judicial nominees in 
the Senate, including several this week.
  I am also looking forward to confirming another important nomination 
in the near future, and that is Gina Haspel's nomination to be the 
Director of the CIA.
  Acting Director Haspel is one of the most qualified candidates for 
the CIA we have ever had. She spent 33 years in the Agency. She served 
overseas and here at home during the Cold War and Global War on 
Terrorism. She served in the trenches, and she has held important 
leadership positions in the Agency. She has won several awards for her 
work, including the Intelligence Medal of Merit, the George H.W. Bush 
Award, and the Donovan Award.
  Her nomination has been endorsed by six former CIA Directors, 
including Leon Panetta and John Brennan, who served as CIA Directors 
under President Obama.
  Our Nation and our world are facing a range of conventional and 
unconventional threats from the possibility of a nuclear-armed Iran to 
an increasingly aggressive Russia and China, to the ever-present threat 
of terrorism. We need a leader like Gina Haspel at the head of the 
CIA--someone who knows intelligence inside and out and who can provide 
the President with the information he needs to make decisions affecting 
our Nation's security.
  I look forward to confirming Ms. Haspel as CIA Director in the very 
near future. I hope my colleagues in the Senate, on both sides of the 
aisle, will join in that endeavor and make sure this important 
position, at this critical time in our Nation's history, is filled with 
a very qualified nominee--the right person to serve as the head of that 
Agency.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.