Senate Republicans are quietly working to replace Ted Stevens as ranking member on three panels, ensuring that the formerly powerful Alaskan lawmaker will be relegated to the sidelines for the remainder of the 110th Congress.

The six-term senator was indicted Tuesday on seven felony counts of making false statements on his Senate financial disclosure forms. Within hours he had complied with a party rule by resigning from his top panel positions.

Stevens stepped down as the top Republican on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee; the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee; and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery.

Mississippi’s Thad Cochran, top Republican on the full Appropriations Committee, is expected to replace Stevens as ranking member of the Defense Appropriations panel for the rest of the 110th Congress, an appropriations aide said late Tuesday. The ranking Republican or chairman of a subcommittee has to affirm Cochran to that position before it is official.

The conference is to meet Wednesday to ratify suggested replacements for Stevens.

Senate Republican Conference rules require that “in the event of an indictment for a felony, the chair/ranking member or elected member of the leadership shall step down until the case is resolved.

“Upon conviction, the chair/ranking member would automatically be replaced.”

On Tuesday, a federal grand jury in Washington issued an indictment alleging that Stevens concealed his receipt of more than $250,000 in benefits from oil services company VECO Corp. and its former chief executive Bill Allen, from 1999 to 2006.

“It saddens me to learn that these charges have been brought against me.” Stevens said in a written statement. “I have never knowingly submitted a false disclosure form required by law as a U.S. senator.”

Republican rules are silent on how quickly those charged with a felony must be replaced. But with Stevens’ quick decision to step aside and the five-week August recess slated to begin next week, Republicans may not feel compelled to tap replacements before leaving town.

Senate GOP leaders were tight-lipped about the indictment of the Senate’s longest-serving Republican, avoiding questions in the halls of the Capitol and canceling appearances at afternoon news conferences. “The Republican Conference just learned of this news,” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters. “We will no doubt have more to say about this later.”

Stevens’ close ally and personal friend Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, is the chairman of both the Commerce Committee and the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.

Inouye said Stevens should be considered “innocent until proven guilty” and said the indictment should not affect Stevens’ ability to do his job.

Conference rules specify that the GOP senators who serve on a committee in need of a replacement at the top recommend a name for the full conference to ratify or reject.

Unlike Democrats, who almost always name committee chairs and ranking members based on seniority, Senate Republicans do not follow a strict seniority system, so it is more difficult to predict who might take Stevens’ place on every panel.

GOP rules limit the number of committee chairmanships a senator can hold, and the political landscape complicates matters further.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who is running for president, is the next-most-senior member of Commerce but would be unlikely to step in for Stevens. McCain previously chaired the Commerce panel but was forced to step aside at the start of the 109th Congress because of internal party term limits.

Any of the next three most senior Republicans on Commerce — Texas’ Kay Bailey Hutchison, Maine’s Olympia J. Snowe or Oregon’s Gordon H. Smith — could become the fill-in, or the GOP could decide to give someone more junior a resume-enhancing opportunity.

Conference rules prevent a senator who serves as the ranking Republican of a major committee from holding the top slot of any other committee or subcommittee — a rule that was waived for Stevens. The rules also bar any senator from holding the top spot on more than two subcommittees.

Domenici, the top Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is the only other Republican member of the disaster recovery subcommittee. He could need a waiver to step in.

When Republicans faced a similar decision last year, they let about two weeks elapse before choosing Richard M. Burr of North Carolina to temporarily take Larry E. Craig’s spot as the top Republican on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

Although conference rules did not require him to do so, Craig, R-Idaho, stepped down at the urging of GOP leaders, after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge.

Long before charges were filed against Stevens, watchdog groups had the 84-year-old lawmaker in their sights.

On Tuesday, Taxpayers for Common Sense renewed calls for Stevens to be stripped of all his committee assignments.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and Common Cause asked the Senate Ethics Committee to look into Stevens’ activities going back to 2003 when reports first surfaced that Stevens was a subject of a federal probe.

“We are very happy to see the Justice Department is taking action when the Senate wouldn’t,” CREW executive director Melanie Sloan said.

The ethics panel has met in recent weeks but its chairwoman, Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and ranking member, John Cornyn, R-Texas, have been tight-lipped about whether the panel has been investigating Stevens. They issued a written statement Tuesday reiterating that the panel does not comment on pending matters and has a policy of not interfering with criminal probes.

The 28-page indictment — the latest in an ongoing probe of corruption in Alaska politics — alleges that Stevens received substantial gifts from VECO, an Alaska oil pipeline and construction company, and its former chief executive officer, Bill Allen.

Allen and former VECO vice president Richard L. Smith pleaded guilty in May 2007 to providing more than $400,000 in corrupt payments to Alaska public officials. Two lobbyists and three Alaska state lawmakers have also been convicted in the scandal, including Peter Knott, the former speaker of the Alaska House, who was convicted of extortion, bribery and conspiracy last year and sentenced to six years in prison.

Catharine Richert, Liriel Higa, Alex Wayne and Chuck Conlon contributed to this report.

First posted July 29, 2008 10:01 p.m.