Goss, 65, a Republican from Florida, was nominated by President George W. Bush in August, and confirmed yesterday by a vote of 77-17 following an approval by the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday.
Goss, a Yale graduate and a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, worked as a CIA and Army intelligence officer in the 1960s.
He would be second lawmaker to become CIA chief, after former president and House member George H. W. Bush, father of the current president.