Trump’s cyber ambassador nominee advances to full Senate vote

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday advanced President Donald Trump’s pick to be the country’s next cyber ambassador.

Adam Cassady, who was nominated last month to helm the State Department’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, was approved by a vote of 17-5. Five panel Democrats voted against him. His nomination now goes to the full Senate.

The bureau, which by statute must be helmed by an ambassador, has been without a leader since the start of the second Trump administration and seen its portfolio divided up between three offices as part of a larger department reshuffle.

During his confirmation earlier this month, Cassady, a senior leader at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said the digital infrastructure that underpins the global economy, such as subsea cables, semiconductors and satellites, “is now as strategically significant as sea lanes, airspace and energy routes were in earlier eras.”

Safeguarding that infrastructure is “central to preserving American power and prosperity,” he added.

Cassady, who previously served at the Federal Communications Commission, was asked a single question during his confirmation hearing, about the administration’s decision to allow chip giant Nvidia the green light to sell its advanced artificial intelligence processors in China.

“I haven't had the benefit of being briefed at a classified level on many of those topics,” he replied. “And so while I don't have a strong point of view on that topic yet, certainly I will very, very quickly develop one.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (NH), the committee’s top Democrat who voted to advance Cassady, said she hoped he would look into the issue and develop a “strong view” if confirmed.

“What we have heard in some briefings is that if we provide those high level chips, it gives China a real jump start in terms of the industry in ways that they don't currently have and won't have unless we're providing them those chips,” she said.