The US Senate on Wednesday voted in approval of Avril Haines, a former official of the CIA, to be the new Director of National Intelligence.

The approval made Haines the first member of President Joe Biden’s cabinet to be officially put in the promised place, reported AFP. 

The US Senate is pacing fast to get the key positions in the federal agencies filled, with voting for the positions of secretary of state and secretary of defense is expected soon. 

Also Read: US President Joe Biden’s Cabinet: First introduction

Antony Blinken, Biden’s nominee for the secretary of state, was vetted by the US Senate Foreign Relations committee days before the inauguration ceremony and made big policy reveals at the hearing. He said that the new administration will “seek a longer and stronger” deal with Iran, which was on the crosshairs of the Trump administration. 

Also Read: A message for President Biden from Iran. It’s not a threat

He also said, “I also believe that President Trump was right in taking a tougher approach to China. I disagree very much with the way he went about it in a number of areas, but the basic principle was the right one.”

Llyod Austin, the nominee for the position of secretary of defense, has previously overseen the US forces in the Middle East under President Obama, would be his Defense Secretary. Austin retired from the Army in 2016 and would need a waiver from the US Congress in order to nullify the seven-year waiting period before he can take up the job.