Former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole has been released from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington for the second time in less than a week.

Dole said in a statement Thursday that he feels "a whole lot better" after being treated for a minor infection. He said he plans to return to work Friday.

The former U.S. senator first left the hospital Jan. 7 but returned that same night after a recurrence of a fever.

The 87-year-old Dole spent 10 months at Walter Reed last year after suffering pneumonia following knee surgery. He left the facility in mid-November.

Dole was elected to the U.S. House in 1960, and the Senate in 1968. He was the Republican nominee for president in 1996, but lost to Bill Clinton.