Mineta Slated to Return to Work Week of Feb. 24

February 20, 2003 3:00 PM, EST

Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta returned to the Department of Transportation Friday afternoon to meet with employees, and was scheduled to return to work the week of Feb. 24, DOT spokesman Ben Langer said on Friday.

Langer said Mineta would be doing "light-duty work" for awhile, but did not elaborate on what that would entail.

"He's in the building, I just have not seen him yet," said Langer.

Mineta, 71, had been conducting business from his hospital bed since Nov. 29, with day-to-day operations left up to Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson and Mineta’s chief-of-staff, John Flaherty, said another DOT spokesman.

The secretary underwent disk surgery in August, and suffered a new pain flareup over Thanksgiving. He was treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., for a staph infection prior to surgeons operating on him Jan. 24 for curvature of the spine, said Mineta spokesman Chet Lunner.