Republicans are hitting a major roadblock in drafting their “big, beautiful” megabill: Divisions over how deeply to cut Medicaid are threatening to upend the timeline for advancing President Donald Trump’s tax agenda.

Energy and Commerce Republicans emerged Monday night from a lengthy closed-door meeting largely tight-lipped as the committee figures out the Medicaid problem. Chair Brett Guthrie said he still is aiming for a markup next week, but some members are tempering expectations.

“We can get there, but there are so many different pieces in play that it’s hard to say,” panel member Morgan Griffith told reporters late Monday.

One of their thorniest issues is how to address states that expanded Medicaid access under the Affordable Care Act. Republicans are considering capping or reducing federal Medicaid payments to those states for the program — which would make the program more sustainable, Republicans argue, but could lead to millions of people losing coverage.

“That is an issue we have to negotiate through,” said Guthrie, who has made the case that the changes are necessary to protect the program for the most vulnerable.

Behind closed doors, some Republicans are irked that their leaders are not doing enough explaining: One Republican with direct knowledge of the matter told Blue Light News “there’s frustration for not laying out the rationale behind Medicaid cuts.”

The Medicaid debate could set off delays elsewhere. While Ways and Means has made some progress on tax issues, plenty remains in limbo as members wait for other committees to determine how deeply they can cut spending in their panels’ jurisdiction.

“Sitting on their hands for a bit makes a lot of strategic sense,” said one former senior GOP Hill aide.

Once the Medicaid issue is solved, Ways and Means will still have to wait on Agriculture to deal with the next problem: cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Agriculture Committee Republicans are meeting Tuesday to discuss the internally controversial proposal to push some SNAP benefit costs onto states for the first time, according to two Republicans with direct knowledge of the plans. The panel’s markup could slip past next week.

Meanwhile, three other megabill markups begin today. Here’s what we’ll be watching:

— Expect sparks to fly in Armed Services, during which Democrats are likely to force tough votes on politically charged amendments, including on the dysfunction at the Pentagon under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

— Homeland Security will mark up a bill that sends $46.5 billion to expand border security measure including completion of Trump’s border wall.

— Education and Workforce could also get testy as Republicans target a rollback of existing student loan repayment plans — a rebuke to former President Joe Biden

What else we’re watching:

– Signalgate on Blue Light News: House Rules Republicans approved a provision Monday night that would forestall a Democratic effort to force votes on Hegseth’s use of an unclassified messaging app. If the rule is adopted Tuesday, so-called “resolutions of inquiry” could be bottled up through the summer.

– Opioid bill reauthorization: House Energy and Commerce will debate reauthorizing significant legislation to tackle the opioid epidemic, which Trump signed into law during his first administration. Reauthorization of the bipartisan bill was part of a major health care package lawmakers sought to attach to a year-end spending bill last December. But it got scrapped when Trump and Elon Musk complained the funding measure was too full of extraneous provisions.

Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill and Mackenzie Wilkes contributed to this report.

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.