Sen. Frank Lautenberg may be in a New Jersey hospital battling a bleeding ulcer, but that hasn’t stopped the 86-year-old Democrat from taking credit for key provisions in the jobs bill the Senate is expected to take up this week.

Lautenberg’s press office sent out a release Thursday declaring: “Lautenberg leads effort to include significant transportation infrastructure investment in jobs agenda.” The release goes on to describe a letter penned by Lautenberg and 16 other Senators encouraging Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) “to make transportation infrastructure a top priority in any jobs package debated in the coming weeks.”

Lautenberg, who chairs the Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security, underwent surgery Tuesday for a bleeding ulcer. He remains in an undisclosed New Jersey hospital, and it is unclear whether he will return to work Monday for a crucial procedural vote on the first in a series of jobs packages that will be considered over the next few weeks.

Spokesman Caley Gray said Wednesday that Lautenberg was “recovering comfortably in the hospital” and “is anxious to get back to work.”