Marco Rubio in line to lead a high-profile Senate committee after Burr resigns 

Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio could be tapped to lead the Senate Intelligence Committee, among the highest-profile positions in the U.S. Senate, after chairman Richard Burr resigned the leadership position following the FBI’s seizing of his cellphone as part of an investigation into his stock transactions.

Or, Rubio could end up leading the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, another high-profile slot that dovetails with his personal interests in Latin America and China policy.

Rubio is the third-ranking Republican on the Intelligence Committee, after Burr and Idaho Sen. Jim Risch. But Risch already leads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Rubio, in contrast, leads the lower-profile Senate Small Business Committee.

If Risch is tapped to lead the Intelligence Committee, that would put Rubio in line to lead the Foreign Relations Committee, which is responsible for foreign policy and the State Department. If Risch isn’t chosen, Rubio becomes the senior-most Republican on the Intelligence Committee, which oversees the nation’s intelligence programs and often conducts classified work. Senators cannot chair two standing committees at the same time.

In an interview minutes after Burr announced his resignation, which he said is temporary for as long as the FBI continues its investigation, Rubio said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will pick the new Intelligence Committee chairman.

“I’ll do whatever they ask, but it’s not up to me,” Rubio said in an interview. “That’s a committee that’s governed by the majority and Democratic leader, so they appoint the chair. I’ll do whatever they ask, but it’s not up to me, it’s a select committee, the majority leader makes those decisions.”

South Dakota Sen. John Thune, a member of Senate Republican leadership, told CNN that Risch intends to stay on as Foreign Relations chair, potentially opening up the Intelligence slot for Rubio. A spokesperson for Rubio said “we’ll keep you posted” when asked about Rubio’s interest in the job. Risch declined to comment.

But if Risch is tapped by McConnell to lead the Intelligence Committee, Rubio would be in line to lead the Foreign Relations Committee, where leaders are chosen by traditional seniority roles instead of being solely chosen by the majority leader.

“That’s a seniority committee, if Senator Risch were to get Intel, then that’s different,” Rubio said. “My personal preference? They’re both great committees, they’re the ones I spent the most amount of time in until the last couple months.”

Unlike assignments to other Senate committees, which are decided by fellow Senate Republicans, McConnell makes Republican appointments to the Intelligence Committee. The Kentucky Republican has so far not indicated the timing for his announcement regarding a new chairman, or whether he would adhere to the seniority system or pull an interim chairman from elsewhere down the line, or even from outside the panel.

McConnell’s office declined to comment Thursday afternoon.

But Rubio already has supporters who want McConnell to pick Rubio to lead the Intelligence Committee, which oversaw the high-profile investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, if he’s interested.

“Senator Rubio would be an excellent choice to lead the Senate Intel Committee,” said Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, a vocal critic of Burr’s conduct who maintains close ties with President Donald Trump. “He is a foreign policy expert and would be widely respected.”

Senate Republicans have a three-term limit for lawmakers serving in the party’s top position on committees. Once the three terms are completed on any given committee, the senator who is next-in-line in seniority on that committee is typically named as a successor by a vote of his or her peers.

Sometimes, a senator who is already in the middle of a three-term tenure as chair or ranking member of another committee will decline the opportunity to switch assignments, at which point the next most senior senator will be tapped for the job. This appears to be the case with Risch, who is enjoying his stint as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Other times, a senator would jump at the opportunity to be the party’s top member on a committee with more influence or a different jurisdiction. The Senate Small Business Committee is typically a lower-profile post but it has grown in importance during the coronavirus pandemic as Rubio and others are overseeing the Paycheck Protection Program, a $660 billion program designed to keep workers employed during a government-mandated work closure in most states.

Rubio also praised Burr’s leadership of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which largely avoided partisan bickering during the high-profile Russia investigation, unlike the House Intelligence Committee.

“He managed what could have been a very difficult situation,” Rubio said of Burr. “We looked at everything we had. People were out there demanding to find collusion [between Trump and Russia] and it wasn’t there. It was a well run process in a difficult environment.”

This story was originally published May 14, 2020 at 2:21 PM.