By Manu Raju and Ted Barrett
CNN
January 26, 2021
(CNN)Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Monday that he will allow the 50-50 Senate to officially organize so Democrats can take control of key committees in the chamber after a weeklong battle with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer over the rights of the minority to stall legislation.
The breakthrough came as GOP leaders were eagerly looking for a way out of a potential crisis that would have stymied the Senate committee process indefinitely, after McConnell pointed to recent comments made by two Democratic senators about their long-standing opposition to gutting the filibuster as sufficient to ease his concerns.
Schumer for days had rejected the GOP leader’s demands, saying Monday afternoon: “We are not letting McConnell dictate how the Senate operates.”