Robert Byrd to step down from Appropriations Chair

Mr. Byrd, who will be 91 this month, is a revered figure in the Senate but has had a series of health problems and hospitalizations in recent months. His Democratic colleagues increasingly feared that he was no longer up to the task of running the Senate's most powerful committee on a daily basis.

Persuading him to step aside, however, presented a delicate task, and any effort to remove him forcibly, which would have required a vote by the Democratic caucus, could well have failed.

In the end, though, Mr. Byrd spared the majority leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, from having to raise the issue. Without so much as requesting a meeting, Mr. Byrd, who served as majority leader himself for a dozen years, gave Mr. Reid 15 minutes' notice before issuing a statement on Friday afternoon relinquishing his post.

Mr. Byrd said that the time had come for new leadership, and that he would turn over the reins of the Appropriations Committee to Senator Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii, who is next in line and who turned 84 in September. Mr. Byrd will remain a member of the committee and will continue to serve as the Senate's president pro tempore.