ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:97071102.txt
DATE:07/11/97
TITLE:11-07-97  CONGRESSIONAL REPORT, FRIDAY, JULY 11, 1997

TEXT:
(Senate confirms Tenet for CIA)  (380)

SENATE CONFIRMS TENET AS DIRECTOR OF CIA

The U.S. Senate confirmed George Tenet as Director of the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) the evening of July 10, only hours after the
Justice Department notified the Senate that it had concluded its
inquiry into Tenet's personal finances.

Tenet's confirmation had been delayed while federal investigators
examined his failure to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in
stock and property that he had said he only recently learned he had
inherited when his father died. In a letter delivered to the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence the afternoon of July 10, Seth
Waxman, the acting Deputy Attorney General, said "there are no
reasonable grounds to believe that further investigation is
warranted."

The Intelligence Committee then approved the nomination by a vote of
19-0. The vote in the full Senate came later on an overwhelming voice
vote.

Senator Richard Shelby, (Republican-Alabama), chairman of the
Intelligence Committee, who had relied on Tenet's competent staff work
when Tenet was staff director of the committee from 1989-1993, praised
the new CIA director for his ability. Tenet promised the U.S. Congress
that it could expect "forthright and candid views about our missions,
programs, and priorities. I will not hold back."

Senator John Kerry, (Democrat-Massachusetts), a member of the
Intelligence Committee, expressed regret that the investigative and
confirmation process had dragged on for so many months. "The CIA is
long overdue in having someone to run it. I think he'll do a terrific
job." Tenet has been Acting Director of the CIA since John Deutch
resigned in December 1996.

Tenet is the fifth CIA Director in the past six years and the 18th in
the agency's 50-year history. He is also the second youngest person to
serve in the post. He is the first CIA Director to come to the job
through the ranks of the congressional overseers, for whom he served
as a staff director.

President Clinton nominated Tenet, who was then the Deputy CIA
Director, in March 1997 when former National Security Advisor Anthony
Lake withdrew his name from consideration for the CIA post after being
heavily criticized by members of the Intelligence Committee.
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