Senate Confirms Kash Patel as FBI Director in 51-49 Vote
On February 20, 2025, the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C., voted 51-49 to confirm Kashyap “Kash” Patel as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for a term of ten years. Patel becomes the bureau's ninth director, succeeding Christopher Wray.
The vote fell largely along party lines. Republicans held 53 Senate seats; Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted no, joining all Democratic and independent senators in opposition, while the remaining 51 Republicans voted yes, including Sen. Mitch McConnell. Earlier the same day, the Senate had voted 51-47 to end debate on the nomination, clearing the way for the confirmation vote.
Patel's nomination had drawn weeks of dispute in the Senate Judiciary Committee. On February 13 the committee voted 12-10 along party lines to report the nomination to the full Senate, after committee Democrats had used the panel's rules to delay the vote by one week. Patel had testified at his confirmation hearing on January 30; President Donald Trump had nominated him in November 2024.
Patel previously served as a Justice Department prosecutor and as chief of staff to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller. After the vote, he posted on X that he was “honored to be confirmed as the ninth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
Wray, whom Trump appointed in 2017, had announced in December 2024 that he would step down at the end of President Biden's term. The FBI director serves a statutory ten-year term, an arrangement intended to span presidential terms and preserve the bureau's independence.
(Source: U.S. Senate)
Source: U.S. Senate
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：联邦调查局局长 Kash Patel 官方肖像。（美国联邦调查局，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons） / Photo: Official portrait of FBI Director Kash Patel. (Federal Bureau of Investigation, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
