Senate clears Nakasone to run CYBERCOM, NSA

(Editor's note: A previous version of this story reported that Nakasone's nomination was stalled in the Senate. The Senate later confirmed him by voice vote.)

The Senate has cleared Army Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone to become the next chief of U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency.

A congressional source told Inside Defense this morning that a hold had been placed on Nakasone's nomination by an unidentified senator, but the full Senate cleared the nomination by voice vote at noon, according to the Senate GOP cloakroom. His nomination had been pending on the Senate's executive calendar since March 22.

Nakasone will succeed Adm. Mike Rogers, who will retire Friday. Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said this morning at a breakfast with reporters that Rogers' change-of-command ceremony was still scheduled for Friday at Ft. Meade, MD, despite the fact Nakasone was not yet confirmed at the time.

"It's on my calendar for Friday," he said. "Our push is to stand up Cyber Command."

Now that Nakasone has been confirmed he will work to elevate CYBERCOM to a fully unified combatant command as directed in the Fiscal Year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act.

During his March 1 Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing, Nakasone said cyber vulnerabilities among contractors in the defense industrial base pose a top threat to U.S. national security and require a new, "comprehensive" approach. Also last month, the White House began reviewing agency recommendations on cyber deterrence, and on April 19, President Trump sent a report to Congress on the "Policy of the United States on Cyberspace, Cybersecurity, and Cyber Warfare," as required by the Fiscal Year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act.