The U.S. Senate voted Tuesday to approve the nomination of Colin Kahl’s nomination for the Pentagon’s top policy job on a party-line vote of 49-to-45.
President Joe Biden’s pick to be undersecretary of defense for policy, Kahl failed to win a single Republican vote, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), the top GOP member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a press release following the vote.
“While I’m disappointed with the outcome, we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us to defend this country,” Inhofe said. “I vow to work in good faith with Dr. Kahl and his team, as I do with every Senate-confirmed official at the Department of Defense. In turn, I hope Dr. Kahl intends to do the same.”
Last month, the Senate Armed Services Committee deadlocked 13-to-13 on the Kahl nomination, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) made a motion to discharge Kahl’s nomination to bring the floor vote.
Kahl’s past social media statements critical of the Donald Trump administration alienated many GOP senators and in his confirmation hearing last month, the nominee apologized for using “sometimes disrespectful language” in his Twitter posts on defense policy, CNN reported Tuesday.
Kahl was the national security adviser to Biden, then-vice president, during the Barack Obama administration and also participated in negotiations that led to the Iran nuclear deal.
