James Clapper was confirmed unanimously by the Senate Thursday night to be the nation’s next intelligence chief.

Clapper, tapped by President Obama for the Director of National Intelligence job, will oversee the nation’s 16 spy agencies.

He will be the fourth person in the position since it was created five years ago. He succeeds Dennis Blair, who was pressured to resign because of differences with the White House over the scope of his role and turf battles with the CIA director.

The Senate vote came before the Senate’s August recess and several days after Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, said he would hold up the confirmation process until he received a report he had requested.

The office of DNI was established by Congress in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to help improve the coordination of the intelligence community and to correct deficiencies in information-sharing among its members.

(Source: CNN)