Rubio to sit on committee that oversees NASA.

Sen. Marco Rubio got his committee assignments Thursday, including a key slot overseeing NASA.

The Florida Republican got seats on committees for Commerce, Science and Transportation; Foreign Relations; Intelligence and Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

The Commerce committee oversees NASA policy. The top Republican on that panel, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, welcomed Rubio to help "keep NASA on track and moving forward as it transitions to a new human spaceflight vehicle."

Rubio, who traveled recently to Afghanistan and Pakistan, said he looked forward to pushing for ratification of trade agreements with Colombia and Panama.

Senate Republicans and Democrats ratified their committee assignments after negotiating the size and partisan breakdowns on the panels following the November elections.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., kept most of his committee assignments on Commerce, where he heads the NASA subcommittee; Finance; Intelligence; Aging and Budget.

But as Democrats gave up committee slots, Nelson lost his seat on the Armed Services Committee.

-Bart Jansen, Washington