Despite the Republican majority in the US Senate, it took a tie breaking vote from Vice President Mike Pence to confirm Betsy DeVos as secretary of education.

DeVos has focused on expanding parental choice in education and embracing charter schools, but also on vouchers that can allow students to use taxpayer dollars to pay tuition at private, religious, and for-profit schools.

It was the first time in history that a vice president has been summoned to the Capitol to break a tie on a cabinet nomination.