President Obama's Democratic Party
has secured the critical 60 seat majority in the US Senate
that can help it override any Republican obstructions on Capitol Hill.
This happened when the Democrats
won the last undecided senate seat from November's election
after the Supreme Court in the state of Minnesota
declared the Democratic candidate Al Franken the winner.
Richard Lister reports from Washington.
For almost eight months
the two candidates had been locked
in a bitter fight in the Minnesota Courts
over the result of November's Senate election.
Just a few hundred votes separated them
after the 2.8 million cast.
The initial count favoured the Republican Norm Coleman
but the recount gave the majority
to his Democratic Party rival Al Franken.
And the State Supreme Court is now upheld that verdict.
His victory gives the Democrats 60 votes in the senate
and the potential to overturn
Republican efforts to block legislation.