Mr. Ratcliffe was known as a loyalist to the president when he served as director of national intelligence in the final year of the first Trump administration. During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee last week, he promised to lead a more aggressive spy agency.

The Senate voted Thursday to confirm John Ratcliffe as the next CIA director, approving the second high-level appointment for the new Trump administration. The vote was 74-25 in favor of Ratcliffe, a former congressman from Texas who was Trump’s director of national intelligence for the last eight months of his first term.