Kennedy will not return next week

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) will not return to the Senate next week and has asked colleagues to help out on critical legislation, his office said on Friday.

Kennedy will continue convalescing at home this week, but his office emphasized he would stay plugged in by speaking with fellow senators by phone as Congress returns for a month-long spurt of work. It did not give an indication of when Kennedy would come back to the Senate.

{mosads}A Kennedy aide said the 76-year-old senator would ask Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), a close friend, and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) to help with bills on mental health parity and higher education. Dodd and Mikulski are members and Kennedy is chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

"Senator Kennedy turned to them because he didn't want his absence to slow progress just as these bills are nearing completion,” the aide said.

Kennedy suffered a seizure on May 17 and was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor a few days later in news that shook the Senate. He was discharged from the hospital on May 21.