Senate committee approves Rhode Island U.S. attorney nominee Cunha

PROVIDENCE (AP) The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved the nomination of Zachary A. Cunha to be the next U.S. attorney for Rhode Island, the state’s senators announced Thursday.

The nomination now heads to the full Senate, Democratic U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse said in a statement. Cunha was nominated by President Joe Biden in September on the advice of Reed and Whitehouse.

Cunha is currently chief of the civil division for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Rhode Island.

The U.S. attorney is the top federal law enforcement official in the state responsible for overseeing an office that prosecutes federal cases in Rhode Island.

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Cunha has been a federal prosecutor since 2005 and joined the Rhode Island office in 2014. He has an undergraduate degree from Brown University and a law degree from George Washington University.

Richard B. Myrus is currently the acting U.S. attorney for Rhode Island.