The committee’s vote almost guarantees she will be confirmed on the Senate floor. Tulsi Gabbard cleared an important hurdle to become President Donald Trump’s director of National Intelligence when the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to refer her nomination out of committee. Gabbard received welcome news after Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Todd Young of Indiana said they would vote to confirm her before the hearing. During her confirmation hearing last week, both seemed to express skepticism about her positions.

Particularly, Young peppered her with questions about her stance on Edward Snowden’s leaking of information about US surveillance programs. But Young, a retired Marine intelligence officer, told The Independent that Gabbard satisfied her questions. “I had extensive conversations with a number of members of the administration and multiple other stakeholders,” Young said. “But mostly those conversations were an effort to elicit the from Ms. Gabbard information assurances from Ms. Gabbard about various concerns I had.”.

Young said her responses were satisfactory. “Those assurances were delivered and therefore I was able to support her,” he said. On Monday evening, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, another member of the Intelligence Committee, said she would vote to confirm Gabbard. “In response to my questions during our discussion in my office and at the open hearing, as well as through her explanation at the closed hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Ms. Gabbard addressed my concerns regarding her views on Edward Snowden,” Collins said in a statement.

Collins had previous expressed skepticism about Gabbard’s views on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows for the U.S. intelligence to gather information on non-Americans outside of the United States. Gabbard, a former Democrat who later endorsed Trump, criticized the program when she served in Congress. The unanimous support from Republicans on the committee guarantees that Gabbard will be confirmed on the Senate floor. Republicans have 53 seats, and even if more traditional Republicans like Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and former majority leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky oppose her, she will still become the next director of National Intelligence.

The vote comes the same day that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine activist who has promoted the debunked link between immunization and autism, received unanimous support from Republicans in the Senate Finance Committee. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician who like Collins had voted to convict Donald Trump for his actions on January 6, announced before the hearing that he would vote to confirm Kennedy.