Vice President-elect Joe Biden will resign from his Senate seat on January 15, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced Friday.

Biden, who was just sworn into his latest term earlier this week, will resign at 5:00 p.m. that day, Reid announced while reading a letter from Biden on the Senate floor today.

The vice president-elect is currently in Southeast Asia with other Senators on a foreign policy-related tour.

Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner (D) will appoint former Biden chief of staff Ted Kaufman to fill the vacancy, an appointment some have suggested is a placeholder until Biden’s son, Beau, the attorney general of Delaware, returns from service in Iraq to stand election for the seat.