Sen. Byrd resigning as appropriations head

Senatore Robert Byrd chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, chairs a committee meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington May 15, 2008.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ninety-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd, the longest serving senator in history, announced on Friday that he will step down from his chairmanship of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.

Byrd will be replaced as chairman by Sen. Daniel Inouye, 84, of Hawaii.

"I believe that it is time for a new day at the top of the Senate Appropriations Committee," said Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat. "I will step away from the chairmanship ... effective January 6, 2009."

Byrd, who said he will continue serving in the Senate, has had health problems in the past year and some Senate Democrats worried he would not be able to withstand the rigors of chairing the Appropriations Committee, which helps decide federal spending priorities.

Byrd, who also holds a Senate leadership position, has been on the spending panel for 50 years and has brought millions of dollars worth of government-financed projects to his home state, one of the poorest in the country.

The senator, who often quotes from a copy of the U.S. Constitution that he carries in his pocket, had served as Senate majority leader for a dozen years.

West Virginians elected Byrd to nine Senate terms, most recently in 2006. Before the Senate, he spent six years in the House of Representatives.

Inouye, of Hawaii, is the second-ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. He chairs a key subcommittee that oversees U.S. defense spending.

Byrd said he would continue to chair another appropriations subcommittee, which doles out money for domestic security programs.

Byrd, like President-elect Barack Obama, has been an outspoken opponent of the U.S. war in Iraq and has tried to use funding bills to bring it to an end.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Bill Trott)