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The Senate has confirmed Jack Lew, a former budget director and chief of staff to the president, as the next Secretary of the Treasury. The vote was 71 to 26.

Decorated Vietnam veteran Chuck Hagel was sworn in as U.S. defense secretary on Wednesday after a bruising Senate confirmation battle, and promised to renew old U.S. alliances and forge new ones without attempting to "dictate" to the world.

With a 71-to-27 vote, the Senate has cleared the way for Chuck Hagel’s confirmation as defense secretary, despite complaints from Republicans about his readiness for the job.

Republicans have, for now, blocked Chuck Hagel's nomination to become defense secretary.

A US Senate panel has approved Chuck Hagel as President Barack Obama's new Secretary of Defense. The move sets the stage for his confirmation in front of the full Senate, possibly this week. The Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday voted 14-11 along party lines, advancing the former Republican Senator from Nebraska's confirmation to take over from Leon Panetta as the head of the Defense department.

A leading Republican senator is threatening to hold up Senate confirmation of President Obama's nominees to lead the Defense Department and the CIA until the White House provides more answers about the deadly Sept. 11 attack against a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Saturday that there's a chance Republicans will filibuster former Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel's nomination as secretary of defense. "Sen. Hagel did not do a very good job before the Armed Services committee," McConnell said. "I think the opposition to him is intensifying. Whether that means he will end up having to achieve 60 votes or 51 is not clear yet." McConnell did not say how he planned to vote.

The sense that Chuck Hagel performed poorly in his confirmation hearing has buoyed the outside groups that have been working to defeat his nomination, many of them financed by donors who refuse to identify themselves (and are not legally compelled to do so).

White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Friday he believes former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, who had a rocky confirmation hearing on Thursday, will be confirmed by the Senate as U.S. defense secretary.

Making his first public comments after his nomination to lead the Pentagon, former Sen. Chuck Hagel said he stood by his record but also urged senators to look beyond controversial votes and statements he made that critics have seized on.