[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 12 (Thursday, January 21, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S88-S89]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CONFIRMATION OF AVRIL DANICA HAINES

  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Madam President, I today rise in support of the 
nomination of Ms. Avril Haines as the Director of National 
Intelligence.
  Last night, the Senate overwhelming voted to confirm Ms. Avril Haines 
as the Director of National Intelligence with a vote of 84-10.
  I voted in support of Director Haines as I believe her to be a 
highly-qualified professional with the trust and mandate by President 
Biden to be a strong leader and reinstall stability and objectivity to 
the intelligence community.
  She has pledged to defend and uphold our democracy, our freedoms and 
our values by ensuring there is simply no place for politics ever when 
it comes to intelligence.
  It is clear from her background that Ms. Haines has the experience 
necessary to be an effective DNI.
  She has served as both the Deputy Director of CIA and as Deputy 
National Security Advisor to President Obama, along with other 
positions in the White House and Congress.
  Her nearly 20 years of experience in national security, intelligence, 
and foreign policy matters gives her valuable insight into the many 
challenges facing the intelligence community and makes her a great 
choice for Director of National Intelligence.
  Based on my conversations with Director Haines and her testimony 
before the Senate Intelligence Committee, I am fully confident she has 
what it takes to put the IC on the right path.
  During her confirmation hearing on Tuesday, January 19, 2021, 
Director Haines outlined her top three priorities: No. 1, strengthening 
the institution including increasing trust and credibility with 
analytic objectivity; No. 2, better aligning IC efforts and resources 
to the major threats we are facing such as China and transnational 
threats; and No. 3, building better partnerships Congress, academia, 
the private sector, U.S. State and local officials, and with other 
countries.
  I strongly agree on these significant priorities and look forward to 
periodically receiving updates from her on these.
  Furthermore, I thank her for her clearly stated position that 
waterboarding is, in fact, torture and that the CIA's former 
interrogation program's enhanced interrogation techniques included 
torture.
  In short, she is the ideal candidate to head the intelligence 
community at a time when we face numerous crisis threatening our 
national security.
  She inherits an intelligence community beset by challenges, and I 
look forward to working with her to protect the American people.
  Mr. PAUL. Madam President, the Director of National Intelligence must 
demonstrate commitment to restraining the vast power of our 
intelligence agencies. They should not view themselves as an enabler or 
facilitator of

[[Page S89]]

agencies that already operate without public scrutiny. We do not need 
another Washington insider in this position, someone who will go along 
to get along, helping to further the expansion of secret government 
powers.
  What we need is someone who is a skeptic of these powers. After years 
of revelations of government spying on Americans and the exposure of 
the unconstitutional applications of these powers, I had hoped that the 
President would submit a nominee that understands the importance of 
regaining the public's trust, to pledge transparency and 
accountability.
  The President's nominee, Avril Haines, does not meet that profile. 
She played a key role in formulating the government's legal authority 
to conduct summary executions by drone and was reportedly summoned in 
the middle of the night to approve lethal drone strikes. As Deputy 
Director of the CIA, she declined to punish any of the CIA employees 
who spied on the Senate as it was investigating the CIA's torture 
programs. Her record is that of an insider, someone who will defend the 
broken status quo. I will not support more of the same unconstitutional 
policies, and I oppose her confirmation.

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