The Senate will take a brief break from its summer recess Thursday and go back into session to pass a $600 million border security bill, a spokesman for Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday.

Democrats and Republicans agreed to convene the unusual special session to approve the border bill that passed the House on Tuesday, as well as approve a resolution on the death of former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), spokesman Jim Manley said.

“This will be an extremely short session as we will just be doing these two items,” Manley said...

Two aging symbols of Congress' penchant for pouring billions into lawmakers' pet
projects are stepping aside next year. While their departure will probably do
little to change Capitol Hill's culture of spending, the biggest challenge may
come from an unlikely source — Barack Obama.

Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., has become increasingly frail and announced he will
relinquish the chairmanship of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which
controls over $1 trillion annually in federal spending...