McCain joins Foreign Relations Committee

McCain indicated last month he’d be interested in
joining Foreign Relations while remaining on Armed Services, which was made
official Thursday. He is not expected to seek the ranking position on
the panel, which should go to Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), after Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) was defeated in 2012.

The Foreign Relations Committee will also likely be getting a new chairman, with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) nominated as secretary of State. The next Democrat in line is Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.).

{mosads}McCain has said that he doesn’t feel he will lose any clout on military issues by dropping “ranking member” from his official committee title.

In addition to McCain, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) — a libertarian-leaning
Republican who has often held up proceedings in the Senate over issues relating
to foreign aid — is also joining the Foreign Relations panel. Sens. Ron Johnson
(R-Wis.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) are also new members.

The Armed Services panel has four new Republicans: Sens. Roy Blunt (Mo.), Mike
Lee (Utah), Ted Cruz (Texas) and Deb Fischer (Neb.).