Washington ? Kansas Republican Sen. Pat Roberts is spending his holidays recovering from knee replacement surgery.

The 73-year-old Roberts had the surgery Monday on his left knee at Inova-Mount Vernon Hospital in Alexandria, Va. He was scheduled to be released today.

Spokeswoman Sarah Little says Roberts had arthroscopic surgery on the same knee earlier this year. That did not repair his torn knee cartilage, so the knee had to be replaced.

Roberts put off the surgery until after the Senate’s vote on health care reform. Roberts voted against the Senate bill that passed 60-39 last Friday on a party-line vote.

Little says Roberts will return to the Senate for critical votes and other work but is curtailing his workload while he goes through rehabilitation.