of cloture requires a three-fifths majority (rather than a simple majority). However, in 2013, the cloture requirement was reduced to a simple majority for all executive and judicial nominations except Supreme Court nominations. In 2017, the cloture requirement was reduced to a simple majority for Supreme Court nominations. These rules changes led to the first ever use of a tie-breaking vote to confirm a Cabinet member when Mike Pence broke a tie to confirm Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education in 2017. In 2018, Pence broke a tie to confirm Jonathan A. Kobes to the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit; this was the first ever tie-breaking vote to confirm a judicial nominee in U.S. history. As a result of the 2020 Senate elections, the 117th Congress's Senate was divided 50–50 between Republicans and Democrats; therefore, Vice President Kamala Harris's tie-breaking vote was instrumental in passing Democratic legislation as it gave the party a majority in the Senate. On July 20, 2021, Harris broke Pence's record for the number of tie-breaking votes in the first year of a vice presidency when she cast the seventh tie-breaking vote in her first six months. Harris cast 15 tie-breaking votes during her first year in office, the most tie-breaking votes in a single year in U.S. history, surpassing John Adams who cast 12 votes in 1790. On May 11, 2022, Harris cast four tie-breaking votes, setting the all-time record of tie-breaking votes in a single day. List of vice presidents by number of tie-breaking votes , there have been 296 tie-breaking votes cast by vice presidents. List of tie-breaking votes since 1945 References External links U.S. Senate: Tie Votes (Secretary of the U.S. Senate) tie-breaking votes cast τ Lists related to the United States Senate Articles containing video clips