Marine Gen. James Mattis was also voted in as US Central Command commander, after the Senate approved his nomination Thursday night. He was No. 1,074 of the 4,500 nominations the Senate confirmed before adjourning for a five-week recess.

His change of command will be next week in Tampa, and then its likely he’ll head to the region.

The Senate also confirmed, with a 63-37 vote yesterday, Elena Kagan as the country’s 112th Supreme Court justice.

Gen. Clapper won Senate confirmation unanimously Thursday evening, although his confirmation looked uncertain even on Wednesday evening, when three Republican senators raised objections to his candidature, protesting the Obama administration’s delay in releasing documents regarding threat assessments of detainees at Guantanamo Bay and satellite intelligence.

He will become the fourth person to run it in five years, and will oversee 16 departments in six spy agencies that don’t always work well together.

As DNI director, Clapper, who cleared the Intelligence Committee 15-0 last week, will oversee all the agencies that make up the US intelligence community, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA).

The Senate also unanimously confirmed Marine Corps Gen. James N. Mattis as commander of Centcom. Mattis, who previously served as NATO supreme allied commander for transformation and commander of US Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., also received the Senate nod late Thursday.

In his new post, Mattis will oversee all US military operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, including the war in Afghanistan and the drawdown of US forces in Iraq.

Mattis replaces Army Gen. David Petraeus, who left Centcom to replace Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal as commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Finally, the Senate also confirmed Elena Kagan as Supreme Court justice, one day before she is to be sworn-in to the lifelong post.

This will mark the first time three women serve at the same time. Kagan will join Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg for the fall term, starting in October.