Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will lead the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee in the next Congress, he said Tuesday, according to The Hill.

“America’s national security interests face the gravest array of threats since the Second World War. At this critical moment, a new Senate Republican majority has a responsibility to secure the future of U.S. leadership and primacy,” McConnell said in a statement.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), currently the top Republican on the subcommittee, is expected to remain as the top Republican on the full Appropriations Committee and take that gavel next year.

McConnell, who has two more years in his current term, announced earlier this year he would not seek his party’s leadership role again. He said at the time that he would get more involved in defense spending fights.

“We are nowhere near doing what we need to do in the defense budget, and that’s gonna be my main focus when I’m out of this particular job, which requires you to keep your mouth shut a lot,” McConnell told Politico in April, as On Base reported.

Army photo by Staff Sgt. Brittany Primavera