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.

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.

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.

McConnell said, “With regard to the organizing resolution, I agree with the majority leader