--- description: Mike Rogers is stepping away from Congress and stepping up to a microphone title: Top Intelligence Lawmaker to Retire image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Congress](/tag/congress/) ## Congress Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Top Intelligence Lawmaker to Retire by [Alex Rogers](/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 28, 2014 2:24 PM CUT by [Alex Rogers](/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 28, 2014 2:24 PM CUT House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers announced Thursday that he will retire at the end of his term for a new career in talk radio. “As I close this chapter please know that I am not finished with the effort to bring back American ‘exceptionalism,’” Rogers said in a [note to supporters](http://www.congressmanrogers.com/news/ "undefined"). “Not in the sense of a great notion, but in the sense of impacting the hopes and dreams of a great nation and her people. You may have lost my vote in Congress but not my voice. I look forward to building on our successes and confronting America’s challenges together.” Rogers, a Republican, has represented part of southwest Michigan since 2001, and has risen in prominence from a FBI special agent to a frequent Sunday talk show guest as a fierce defender of the National Security Agency. After the disclosure of mass NSA domestic surveillance programs by leaker and former contractor Edward Snowden, Rogers and Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence committee, released a proposal earlier this week to scale back the [NSA’s bulk collection](http://time.com/37336/lawmakers-float-their-own-nsa-reform-bill/ "undefined") of data on Americans’ phone calls, a significant measure compared to just a year ago. Rogers will start as a radio talk show host for the company Cumulus in January of 2015. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/41625/mike-rogers-retirement-house/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/41625/mike-rogers-retirement-house/"},"headline":"Top Intelligence Lawmaker to Retire","datePublished":"2014-03-28T14:24:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:01:18.427Z","description":"Mike Rogers is stepping away from Congress and stepping up to a microphone","url":"https://time.com/41625/mike-rogers-retirement-house/","keywords":["Congress","house"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alex Rogers","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/41625/mike-rogers-retirement-house/","name":"Top Intelligence Lawmaker to Retire"}}]}] ```