Confirmation hearing set for next week for Obama’s nominee for national intelligence director

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Senate panel sets hearing for intelligence chief

WASHINGTON — The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday scheduled a confirmation hearing for President Barack Obama’s nominee for national intelligence director, a sign of a shift in a standoff between congressional Democrats and the White House.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the committee’s chairwoman, set a hearing for July 20 for James T. Clapper. The session would come more than six weeks after Obama said he hoped for a speedy confirmation.

Feinstein had refused to hold the hearing until House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., allowed last year’s intelligence bill to move ahead. The measure has already passed the Senate, but Pelosi is in talks with the Obama administration to make it stronger in its oversight authority.

An aide to the senator said Feinstein decided she could not risk delaying Clapper’s nomination any longer because the acting national intelligence director, David Gompert, is nearing retirement. The aide wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.

Obama said June 5 that he wanted Clapper, the head of intelligence for the Defense Department, to succeed retired Adm. Dennis Blair as director of national intelligence. Blair resigned after clashing frequently with the White House and other intelligence officials.

The national director of intelligence oversees 16 spy agencies, a position set up in 2004 as part of reforms that followed the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Feinstein has said she has concerns about someone from the military taking charge of all the U.S. spy agencies. Clapper, a Vietnam veteran and retired Air Force general, has been confirmed by the Senate for senior positions four other times.