Wyden to block confirmation for NSA director, citing lack of experience
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) speaks at a press conference with other Senate Democrats on December 16, 2025. Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images
The senator, in part, took issue with Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd’s responses to questions regarding civil liberties and oversight against unlawful surveillance.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is moving to halt Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd’s confirmation to run U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, arguing that the nominee lacks the relevant credentials required for the post.
Rudd currently serves as deputy commander at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and has held other senior leadership roles during his military career. He has not previously held a military cyberintelligence role.
In a letter lodged in the Congressional Record on Wednesday, Wyden — a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee — wrote that Rudd “does not have the background that would allow him to immediately step into” the role of leading the foreign eavesdropping agency and digital combatant command.
Wyden also took issue with Rudd’s responses to questions in his confirmation hearing that involved civil liberties and oversight against unlawful surveillance.
“His responses … reveal a lack of familiarity with basic constitutional rights that is incompatible with the position for which he has been nominated,” the letter said.
The NSA utilizes a slew of legal statutes that allow analysts to access communications of phones, computer networks and other electronics for intelligence-gathering purposes. It uses authorities housed under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, including a contentious section that Wyden and other privacy advocates have taken issue with.
Given ongoing concerns about Fourth Amendment protections related to DHS and ICE activities, Wyden said the nation is facing “a dangerous moment” with constitutional rights under attack.
“The potential for abuse is enormous, as we saw when the Agency secretly conducted an illegal, warrantless surveillance program that it hid not only from the public but from Congress,” the senator wrote, referencing revelations about NSA surveillance activities made by Edward Snowden about a decade ago.
Rudd has defended his qualifications, telling lawmakers that he has consumed and acted on insights from intelligence gathered by NSA and Cyber Command. Some former officials and China analysts view Rudd’s Indo-Pacific background as relevant to U.S. cyber operations involving Beijing.
NSA and Cyber Command have been without a permanent leader for months, after far-right activist Laura Loomer pushed for the firing of their previous head, Gen. Timothy Haugh, last April.