WASHINGTON — The Senate Intelligence Committee voted 12-3 to confirm John O. Brennan as director of the CIA on Tuesday, hours after the White House agreed to provide more information on the legal basis for targeted killings of Americans believed to pose a terrorist threat.

The vote, in a closed committee meeting, clears the way for Brennan, a 25-year CIA veteran who has been President Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, to be confirmed by the full Senate later this week.