Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) promised to make the State Department “relevant again” during his confirmation hearing to lead the agency, facing a receptive audience among Senate colleagues he has served with for more than a decade.

Rubio is expected to receive broad bipartisan backing, with a number of Senate Democrats expressing full-throated support for his confirmation to be America’s top diplomat.

“I’ve always been struck working with Senator Rubio on this committee, since I came to the Senate in January 2013, that he has a very well-developed sense of the world and a passion and interest in all corners of it,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said during the hearing.

Kaine later announced he’d be a “Yes” vote on Rubio’s confirmation. It marked a stark contrast to his grilling of Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, the previous day.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a business meeting Monday to vote to advance Rubio’s nomination to the Senate floor.

“I hope I can earn your support — either you think I’ll do a good job, or you are trying to get rid of me,” Rubio said to laughs.

“The result is the same,” Sen Jim Risch (R-Idaho) joked.

Lawmakers were largely agreeable with Rubio’s stances on America’s foreign policy priorities, and barely touched on controversial issues like Trump’s imperialistic threats to Canada, Greenland and Panama; conflicts of interest over the president-elect’s global business ties; and likely reversals to some of Biden’s foreign policy decisions.

Here are five key takeaways from Rubio’s hearing:

Rubio wants to make State ‘relevant again’

“We want the State Department to be relevant again, and it should be,” Rubio said, arguing the agency has lost influence to leaner, more agile agencies like the National Security Council because “it takes so long for the State Department to take action.”

But Rubio is likely to have competition within the........

© The Hill