Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have reached a tentative agreement that would give Democrats a three-seat advantage on most committees during the 111th Congress.

That is a big change from the 110th Congress, when the party held only a 51-49 operating majority in the full Senate and a one-seat edge on most committees.

Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow , head of the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, said Democrats negotiated a larger, four-seat advantage on the Appropriations and Armed Services committees. By statute, Democrats will have only a one-seat edge on the Intelligence Committee and a two-seat advantage on the Joint Economic Committee. On all other committees — except the Ethics panel, which always includes three members of each party — there will be three more Democrats than Republicans, Stabenow said.

The major sticking point of the lengthy and sometimes difficult ratio negotiations — whether to count the still-unresolved Minnesota Senate election as a Democratic pickup — appears to have been resolved in Democrats’ favor.

Stabenow said the ratios she disclosed Tuesday assume Democrats will enjoy an effective 59-41 edge in the Senate as a whole, a margin the party would achieve only if they win Minnesota.

Democrats pushed for ratios that assume that Democrat Al Franken won the Minnesota election, a concession Republicans until now were unwilling to make. Franken led former GOP Sen. Norm Coleman by 225 votes after an exhaustive recount, the state Canvassing Board announced last week.

But Coleman filed suit contesting the election results, and the case is now in the Minnesota courts, awaiting a final outcome.

Reid, D-Nev., and McConnell, R-Ky., disclosed their tentative agreement Tuesday.

It paves the way for the Senate to adopt its organizing resolution, make formal committee assignments, divide up panel budgets and launch formal committee operations.

“We’re at a point where we’ve resolved, we believe, the issue relating to how committees are funded and what the ratios will be in the various committees,” Reid said. “It has taken weeks of work to get that done. We’re moving forward.”

McConnell said, “With regard to the organizing resolution, I agree with the majority leader, we’re very close to being ready to move forward on that.”

The Democrats’ Steering and Outreach Committee approved the agreement Tuesday and the full Democratic Caucus was expected to follow suit later in the day.

Nearing Completion