Jay Clayton Faces Key Senate Test Wednesday in Bid to Lead National Intelligence

Published Jul 15, 2026, 5:01 AM EDT

Clayton is speaking before the Senate Intelligence Committee to become the new director of national intelligence.

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Published Jul 15, 2026, 5:01 AM EDT

Jay Clayton is set to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday for a hearing to decide whether he will become the next Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Committee Chair Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, officially scheduled the hearing for Clayton—the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York who chaired the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) during President Donald Trump's first administration. Clayton first received Trump's nomination to lead the nation's 18 intelligence agencies in June, but a hearing was abruptly canceled when the president publicly said he wanted Congress to first act on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in addition to pushing through voter ID legislation as part of the SAVE Act.