Democrats officially take control of the US Senate

Vice President Kamala Harris administered the oath of office on Wednesday to newly elected Democratic Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff of Georgia and to her own successor, Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California.

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Both the Democratic and Republican Senate caucuses now have 50 members, and Ms. Harris will cast any tie-breaking vote.

Messrs. Warnock and Ossoff are Georgia’s first Black and first Jewish senators, respectively. And Mr. Padilla is the first Latino senator from California.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) now becomes the Senate majority leader. But talks on an organizing resolution for the new Senate have stalled, complicating the timing of confirmation votes for President Biden’s cabinet nominees, as well as the prospects for new legislation.

But the parties did come together Wednesday night to confirm Avril Haines, Mr. Biden’s pick to lead the U.S. intelligence community, 84-10. The broadly bipartisan vote made Ms. Haines the first woman to serve as director of national intelligence and delivered the newly inaugurated president his first Senate-confirmed Cabinet secretary.

Power-sharing negotiations between Mr. Schumer and top Republican Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.)—now the minority leader—ran into trouble this week over the fate of the legislative filibuster, a longstanding rule that empowers the minority party to block most bills.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, didn’t say what the holdup was on reaching an agreement with Republicans on the organizing resolution, or when he expected a deal to get done. “The first meeting was not as productive as we hoped," he told reporters.

In his first speech as majority leader, Mr. Schumer addressed his GOP colleagues, saying the Senate “works best when we work together." He added, “We have no choice but to try to work together every day to reward the faith the American people have placed in us. So let us begin."

Mr. McConnell, in his own speech, congratulated Mr. Biden and pledged to work with him “wherever possible."

Mr. McConnell said both parties should strive for common ground. Noting the narrow Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, he said voters “intentionally entrusted both political parties with significant power to shape our nation’s direction."

Democrats also haven’t set a schedule for holding the Senate impeachment trial for President Donald Trump. He was impeached a second time by the House earlier this month, and the trial must kick off immediately once House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) sends the article to the Senate, barring a bipartisan agreement on timing. Mrs. Pelosi hasn’t said when she intends to send the article across the Capitol.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.