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Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock’s reelection Tuesday night will end the longest 50-50 split in the Senate in U.S history. 

Democrats have controlled the chamber for the past two years because Vice President Kamala Harris has accounted for the tiebreaking vote. But the evenly divided Senate tied the hands of the party in charge in several ways. So while the single seat that Democrats picked up in the midterms might not seem like much on the surface, it will have a profound impact on Capitol Hill. 

“This will make it easier for us to get some things done,” Warnock, who defeated Republican challenger Herschel Walker in a runoff, told President Joe Biden in a phone call.

“It’s big. It’s significant,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said in a news conference Wednesday. “We can breathe a sigh of relief.”

Here are five things that will change in the 51-49 Senate.

A true majority in committees

Democrats have chaired all committees the past two years, but there was equal representation from both parties on the panels, increasing the chances of tie votes. 

Starting next month, Democrats will have one more member than Republicans on all committees, ensuring legislation and nominees advance if all Democrats stick together.

“The number of times chairs came to me and said, ‘I’d like to move this bill forward, but in a 10-10 committee, I can’t do it, it’ll be tied’ — that’s all going to change because we’ll have the advantage on every committee,” Schumer said.

Party leaders, however, have still had the option to bring tied committee business to the full Senate for votes.

Democrats will also be entitled to a larger share of committee budgets and bigger staffs. 

Judicial and administration nominees

Tie votes in committees have been felt most on judicial and administration nominees, for which Republicans have been able to slow the process. In the event of a tie committee vote, the full Senate must first vote to bring the nomination to the Senate floor and then vote on the nomination itself.

Last year, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, delayed confirmation of dozens of Biden’s ambassador nominees in protest of the president’s decision to drop U.S. opposition to a Russian pipeline into Germany. 

In February, Republicans on the Banking Committee boycotted a vote on Biden’s nominees for the Federal Reserve, preventing a quorum. One nominee, Sarah Bloom Raskin, later withdrew her nomination.

“It’s been amazing how Republicans have been able to use the 50-50 Senate to procedurally hold up so many appointments,” Schumer said. “It’s going to be a lot quicker, swifter and easier.”

And the extra cushion means it will be less likely that Democrats will have to sweat out absences at full Senate confirmation votes, like they did in July when Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont was recovering from hip replacement surgery and Schumer and Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut had both tested positive for COVID-19 just before a vote on Steve Dettelbach to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. (Dettelbach was confirmed because two Republicans — Susan Collins of Maine and Rob Portman — voted for him.)

Subpoenas

The stronger grip on committees will allow Democrats to have greater oversight ability, Schumer said. 

He said Democrats may issue subpoenas focusing on “corporate corruption and inequities and other problems throughout the country.” He did not elaborate.

Currently, there must be bipartisan support to issue subpoenas.

Manchin and Sinema

Centrist Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona will lose some clout now that the Democrats hold 51 seats.

While 60 votes are needed to advance most legislation in the Senate, certain items can be passed by a simple majority using the budget reconciliation process. But Democrats could not afford any defections, and Manchin was at times difficult to win over.

For example, in December 2021, Manchin sank Biden’s $1.9 trillion social and climate package, a key part of his agenda, over concerns about the cost. Manchin was later able to negotiate a slimmed-down bill more to his liking — the $430 billion Inflation Reduction Act, which Congress passed in August.

Democrats, meanwhile, have sometimes had to negotiate with Sinema to secure her support, such as when they agreed to drop from the Inflation Reduction Act a $14 billion tax increase on some hedge fund managers and private equity firms.

“Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are great members of our caucus,” Schumer said. “They’re very valuable. They don’t always agree with us on certain issues, but they are tremendous contributors to our caucus, and we will continue to work with them.”

Senate Democrats can now pass legislation without the support of either Manchin or Sinema if all of their other members are on board. They, however, will face a new obstacle: a Republican majority in the House.

Some Democrats also have expressed support for a carve-out to the filibuster rule for certain items, such as to protect voting rights. Manchin and Sinema have been opposed to such a change, but the new makeup of the Senate at the very least puts Democrats a step closer to that possibility.

Less reliance on VP tiebreakers

The 50-50 Senate has been a weight on Vice President Kamala Harris. 

In May, Politico reported that Harris and her aides have been frustrated that the vice president has had to limit her travel in order to be available for tiebreaking votes in the Senate. She would rather be on the road expressing her support for issues important to her, such as abortion rights and voting rights, according to the report. 

Harris has broken 26 votes, the most by a VP in nearly 200 years.