Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley said Monday he won’t advance two of President Donald Trump’s U.S. attorney picks after they ran into opposition from one of their home-state senators.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said earlier this month he would not return his blue slip for Jay Clayton’s nomination to serve as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York or Joseph Nocella Jr.’s in the Eastern District.

The blue slip isn’t a Senate rule but instead a precedent that allows senators to effectively block the approval of nominees to U.S. district courts and U.S. attorney’s offices in their states.

Asked if Schumer’s objections meant that the two nominees won’t advance, Grassley said in a brief interview, “We’re going to honor the blue slip.”

Rep. Gerry Connolly, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, will step down from his leadership post on the panel and not run for reelection.

The Virginia Democrat, whose constituency includes many federal workers, cited the return of his esophageal cancer — first diagnosed in late 2024 — as the reason for his planned departure.

“With no rancor and a full heart, I move into this final chapter full of pride in what we’ve accomplished together over 30 years,” Connolly said in a statement Monday, saying he would pull back from his ranking member position “soon.”

Connolly had beaten out Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for the top leadership position on the panel in a contest last fall that in many ways had tested the House Democratic Caucus’ appetite for generational change. Several aging committee leaders had stepped aside in the face of challenges from Democrats who promised to bring a more vigorous opposition to the Trump administration to the table, though Connolly and his allies had stressed that the veteran lawmaker had invaluable investigative experience.

Ocasio-Cortez is no longer a member of the Oversight Committee and joined Energy and Commerce this year, so she could have a difficult time mounting a comeback bid — though it’s not clear she intends to do so. Others who might step up to the plate include Reps. Ro Khanna of California and Jasmine Crockett of Texas.

The House’s legislative sprint to pass President Donald Trump’s agenda by Memorial Day enters a new phase Monday, with Republicans gearing up for the first week of committee markups on the sweeping tax, border and energy bill.

It’s an ambitious timeline for Speaker Mike Johnson and there are doubts within the conference it’s even feasible. House Republicans did make progress on some items like tricky tax issues over the two-week recess, but they’re still far from agreement on key hangups, like the amount of spending cuts and any changes to safety-net programs.

A new clash is incoming between House Republicans and the White House, which is now cautioning against slashing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program amid mounting concerns that slashing this benefit could hit the president’s voters. That goes against House conservatives, who want to overhaul a program they believe is filled with overpayment issues.

Some committees are privately trying to work out some of the thorniest issues before bringing their pieces of the megabill up for markups. Financial Services Republicans are meeting privately tonight to discuss their portion of the bill, according to a person granted anonymity to speak freely. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will also reconvene his “Big Six” meetings with Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Congress’s tax chiefs on the GOP tax component of the package.

It’s all fair game for conversation when Johnson and Trump meet at the White House Monday. Meanwhile, here are the other big policy debates that will be on full display across as many as seven committee markups in the coming days:

— Transportation and Infrastructure is expected to meet and propose a $150 annual fee for all electric vehicles to help meet its $10 billion savings goal.

— Education and Workforce is expected to target Biden-era student loans while looking for $330 billion in spending cuts.

— Armed Services and Homeland Security won’t have the spending cut problem: They both have increases to their budgets as Republicans want to strengthen the military and beef up immigration enforcement at the border as part of their final package. But that could still spark some intraparty fights, with defense hawks and fiscal conservatives at odds over a proposed $150 billion increase for the Pentagon.

— Oversight and Government Reform is looking to force federal workers to pay more into their retirement accounts to help reach the committee’s $50 billion deficit reduction target.

— Financial Services is proposing slashing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s funds by almost 60 percent as one way to reach its $1 billion savings goal.

— Judiciary could meet this week to determine how to allocate $110 billion, which could involve establishing new policies to crack down on legal immigration.

What else we’re watching:

– Thune could defy parliamentarian: Senate Majority Leader John Thune could flout the chamber’s parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, by allowing a floor vote on a resolution to undo certain Biden-era “waivers” allowing California to set stricter car emissions standards, which critics say amounts to an EV mandate. MacDonough recently ruled that this allowance doesn’t constitute a formal rule, so it would not be subject to reversal by lawmakers under a wonky procedural tactic known as the Congressional Review Act. But Sen. Kevin Cramer said in an interview he believes Thune is considering setting up floor consideration of a CRA resolution to undo the waivers, anyway.

– Rescissions decisions: Trump’s $9.3 billion rescissions request is expected to land on Capitol Hill this week. That will start a 45-day countdown (minus recess) for both chambers to pass a package codifying clawbacks of funding to the State Department, USAID, NPR and PBS. If Congress doesn’t clear legislation making these spending cuts in that timeframe, the president is then legally required to disburse the money.

– Revenge porn bill: The House will vote Monday on legislation that would crack down on non-consensual intimate photos and videos, including AI-generated deepfakes. The bill, spearheaded by Senate Commerce Committee chair Ted Cruz and backed by first lady Melania Trump, sailed through the House Energy and Commerce Committee in a 49-1 vote earlier this month.

Jordain Carney, Hailey Fuchs, Jasper Goodman, Benjamin Guggenheim, Meredith Lee Hill , Chris Marquette, Connor O’Brien, Oriana Pawlyk, Jennifer Scholtes and Mackenzie Wilkes contributed to this report.