Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) will serve as temporary chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, replacing the outgoing Senator Richard Burr (R-N.C.), as reported by Politico.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) made the announcement on Twitter on Monday. In his official statement, McConnell described Rubio as “the natural choice for this temporary assignment on the basis of accumulated committee service.”
Rubio first rose to prominence with his election to the U.S. Senate in 2010, as part of the massive Tea Party wave of Republicans elected to Congress that year. He eventually ran for president in 2016, famously losing his home state to Donald Trump in the primaries; after briefly announcing his retirement from politics overall following the loss, he changed his mind and decided to run for re-election to the Senate, winning easily. After Rick Scott (R-Fla.) defeated incumbent Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) in 2018, Rubio became the senior senator from Florida.
Senator Burr had previously announced that he would be stepping down as chairman amidst an ongoing FBI investigation into alleged insider trading, where Burr has been accused of selling stocks after becoming aware of the then-imminent market crash due to the spread of the coronavirus. Burr is one of several senators accused of such insider trading, alongside Kelly Loefler (R-Ga.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).