WASHINGTON, May 23 (UPI) -- U.S. Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden moved a step closer Tuesday to becoming director of the CIA with the endorsement of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee.
The committee voted 12-3 for confirmation, The New York Times reported. The eight Republicans on the committee and four Democrats voted to endorse Hayden's nomination.
Sens. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., Russell Feingold, D-Wis., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., voted against Hayden. The Times said the senators pointed to his role in the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program as a reason for their decisions.
The full Senate, where Hayden is expected to win easy confirmation, may take up the nomination this week.
Hayden was named May 8 by U.S. President George Bush to replace Porter Goss, who abruptly resigned May 5. Goss's last day at the CIA is Friday.
Hayden currently is deputy director of National Intelligence, a position he has held since April 2005. He previously was director of the NSA, which, in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, began a Bush administration-approved program to monitor, without warrants, communications of suspected terrorists -- even if one end of the conversation was in the United States.
