Obama officially nominates new Cabinet secretaries

President Obama formally nominated three top Cabinet posts and the next director of the Central Intelligence agency (CIA) while at the Capitol on Monday for his inauguration.

The nominations, all of which had been previously announced, included former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) to replace Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and White House chief of staff Jack Lew to replace Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

Obama is also nominating national security adviser John Brennan to head the CIA, replacing acting director Michael Morell, who has held the post since the resignation of former director David Petraeus.

At the ceremony, the president joked to congressional leaders he was confident the nominations would be handled "at great dispatch."

Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) also appeared to snag one of the ceremonial pens being used to sign the official nominations. Observing the move, the president offered Reid a pen from his jacket pocket instead.

The White House also announced that Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki would be the Cabinet official sitting out the inaugural festivities, a security precaution taken for large collections of top leaders. Shinseki is sixteenth in the presidential line of succession, above only Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.

Obama also signed a proclamation to commemorate the inauguration while at the Capitol.

—This post was updated at 12:50 p.m.

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