McConnell, Schumer reach deal to hand Senate over to Democrats

Feb. 3 (UPI) -- After weeks of negotiations, the top party leaders in the U.S. Senate said Wednesday they've reached an agreement for how the upper chamber will be governed for the next two years.

The Senate began the 117th Congress last month under a previous organizational structure that still had Republicans, who formerly held the majority, in charge.

With the chamber split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, and Vice President Kamala Harris a tie-breaking vote, Democrats now control the Senate.

Wednesday's agreement makes the Democratic majority official and gives them control of all Senate committees.

"I am happy to report ... that the leadership of both parties have finalized the organizing resolution for the Senate," Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor.

"We will pass the resolution through the Senate today, which means that committees can promptly set up and get to work with Democrats holding the gavels."

One issue that delayed the new power-sharing agreement was a demand from Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell that any deal protect the filibuster rule, which requires a 60-vote supermajority on certain bills. Schumer rejected the idea.

McConnell eventually dropped the demand after Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona assured him they would oppose any future attempt to change to the filibuster rule.

Wednesday's agreement is based on a historic power-sharing deal in 2001, which also covered an even 50-50 party split in the Senate. That deal allowed equal representation in committees, divided staffing resources and tweaked protocol to give both sides more of a say.

Under the new deal, bills and nominations will be be allowed to move to the Senate floor if there's a tie vote in-committee.

Senate Democrats won control of the chamber on Jan. 5 when challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock both unseated incumbent Republicans in runoff races. They weren't sworn in until Jan. 20, which left Republicans in charge pending a new organizing resolution.

Several of Biden's Cabinet nominees still need to be confirmed, and the Senate will soon take up the president's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief proposal. The legislation was narrowly passed, along party lines, on Tuesday via the expedited reconciliation process that required only a simple majority.