His brief period in office lapsed the next day upon Lula's return.He was the main author of a controversial project to change Brazil's Forest Code introduced in the 1960s.
Those changes, lobbied by Brazilian farmers, aimed to extend the areas that can be legally deforested.
Although President Rousseff vetoed some parts of the law drafted under Rebelo’s leadership and finally passed in May 2012, critics such as the WWF saw the law as a catastrophe for the Amazon forest.Rebelo was the Minister of Sports from 27 October 2011 until 1 January 2015.
He was the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation from 1 January 2015 to 1 October 2015.
He was the Minister of Defense in the cabinet of President Dilma Rousseff from 1 October 2015 to 12 May 2016, when he was replaced by the acting president Michel Temer.
He left the Communist Party in August, but then joined the Brazilian Socialist Party in September.