Reid: Senate to consider several nominations this week, including Brennan

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the Senate would spend the week on nominations, including the nomination of John Brennan to lead the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Later Monday there will be two votes on district judges for New York in the Senate. Reid announced that the Senate would also vote on Caitlin Joan Halligan, a D.C. circuit nominee later in the week.

Reid said that D.C. circuit court has four vacancies and that President Obama is the only president to not get a D.C. circuit nominee confirmed during a four-year term. He said Republicans blocked Halligan's nomination during the last Congress.

“Republicans have again and again injected politics into the confirmation process,” Reid said on the Senate floor Monday. “There was once a time when the Republicans were defending the president’s right to choose the players on his own team, but that was back when a Republican was in the White House."

Reid added that the Senate would also consider the nomination of John Brennan to lead the CIA. The Senate Intelligence Committee is expected to approve Brennan’s nomination on Tuesday, meaning a Senate vote would likely come Wednesday or Thursday.

“He’s very well qualified and should be confirmed quickly,” Reid said. "It will be a test of Republican’s goodwill.”

Reid was critical of Republicans for holding up the nomination of Chuck Hagel to lead the Department of Defense for two weeks. Hagel was eventually confirmed at the end of last month. Reid said he hoped Republicans wouldn’t filibuster Brennan’s nomination as well for the sake of national security.

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