A procedural vote along party lines early Friday morning decided to close contentious debate in the Senate over the confirmation of Betsy DeVos, which is now expected to fall to a 50-50 tie broken by Vice President Pence.

Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, members of the Senate’s committee on education, announced Wednesday they would be voting “no” on DeVos’s confirmation in the upcoming final tally. Both Collins and Murkowski doubted the nominee’s sufficient experience in public education and expressed concerns that a national emphasis on school choice initiatives, for which DeVos is a leading advocated, would not serve their rural states. Still, the two moderate Republican senators voted on Friday to move her confirmation along.