WASHINGTON, Aug 2 (Reuters) - U.S. Senator John McCain is stalling a Senate vote on the retired general nominated to be President Barack Obama's intelligence chief, a McCain spokeswoman said on Monday.
The move by McCain could delay the confirmation of James Clapper as director of national intelligence until September, after the congressional summer recess.
Before McCain’s move, a Senate vote on Clapper had been expected to happen this week.
McCain, a Republican, has placed a "hold" — a procedural move blocking a floor vote — on Clapper’s nomination until he gets a report from the nominee, the senator’s spokeswoman said. She did not name the subject of the requested report.
"Senator McCain requested a specific report from Mr. Clapper and until that report is provided, Senator McCain will continue to hold his nomination," the spokeswoman said.
Obama nominated Clapper in June after he ousted Admiral Dennis Blair from the intelligence chief’s job. The nomination already has been delayed several weeks while some lawmakers questioned whether Clapper, who has served as undersecretary of defense for intelligence, would be too beholden to the Pentagon.
But Clapper overcame the doubts of lawmakers on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence; they unanimously approved him last week.
If he is confirmed by the Senate, he would be the fourth person to hold the director of national intelligence post in five years. Blair’s 16-month tenure was marked by bureaucratic turf battles with the CIA and the White House, and criticism over the intelligence community’s failure to prevent a botched Christmas Day attempt to blow up a U.S. airliner.
Congress created the director of national intelligence post in 2004 to oversee the 16 agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community including the CIA, in response to lapses exposed by the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. But critics say the post has never been given enough authority to be effective.
McCain lost the U.S. presidential race to Obama in 2008 and currently faces a Republican primary challenge for his Senate seat from former congressman J.D. Hayworth.
