WASHINGTON — Democratic Sen. Daniel K. Inouye of Hawai'i will become the next chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee with an announcement today that Sen. Robert Byrd would step down from the position Jan. 6.

Byrd, who is 90, said it was time for Inouye, 84, to take over the committee.

"He is my friend. He is a genuine American hero," Byrd said. "He will be a skillful and fair chairman of the Appropriations Committee because he is a man of outstanding character and great wisdom."

"I am humbled by Chairman Robert Byrd's recommendation that I succeed him as the next chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee," Inouye said in a statement. "I hope that I am sufficiently prepared to succeed my mentor, who has assisted and guided me over the past 30 years, and in particular, during the years that he has led this important panel with distinction.

"I am most honored by the confidence Majority Leader Harry Reid has placed in me as the next chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee," the senator from Hawai'i said.

Committee chairmanships and assignments will be officially determined when the Democratic Caucus meets Nov. 18. "I hope my Democratic colleagues will have faith in my ability to lead the full Appropriations Committee forward," he said.

He will also continue as chair of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.

Inouye has been a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee since January 1971.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., confirmed that Inouye would be chairman in the next Congress that convenes in January.

"There is no question that Sen. Byrd's decision was eased by the knowledge that the gavel will continue to be in such capable hands," Reid said.

Byrd is the longest-serving senator in history. Inouye is the second most senior member of the current Senate, having served there since 1963.

Inouye will be taking over at a time when the Democrats will have increased majorities in the Senate and the House, and Hawai'i native son Barack Obama, also a Democrat, is in the White House.

The senator will preside over a committee that decides how hundreds of billions of federal dollars are spent annually. For Hawai'i, it means the senator could build on his successes in steering hundreds of millions a year to the state for various projects from Native Hawaiian healthcare to brown tree snake control.

But the congressional appropriations process has been coming under greater scrutiny in the past few years over the billions of dollars federal lawmakers divert to special projects, known as earmarks.

Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, said there will be a change in the top leadership of the committee but "certainly Inouye has not been any slouch in delivering the bacon to Hawai'i and I think that is going to continue."

"I don't think Senator Inouye is about to pick up that mantle of reform or change. He is a member of the old guard."

Byrd, D-W.Va., said he was voluntarily leaving the position, believing it was time for new committee leaders.

"This is a decision I made only after much personal soul-searching and after being sure of the substantial Democratic pickup of seats in the Senate," Byrd said.

Sen. Robert Byrd is the longest-serving senator in history. He has become increasingly frail in recent years, and the move didn't come as a surprise.

Meanwhile, speculation is strong that the Democrats will dump Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman now that they don't need him to maintain a Senate majority.

He's now chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, a job which could go to Hawai'i Sen. Daniel Akaka.

That would leave Veterans Affairs for Sen. Patty Murray of Washington.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.