Congress

The future of the ‘blue slip’ could be in Mike Lee’s hands

Published

25 minutes ago

September 23, 2026

Donald Trump has long fumed over a Senate practice that lets Democrats effectively veto some of his judicial nominees. He might soon have an ally in a position to do something about it.

Utah Sen. Mike Lee is poised to chair the Judiciary Committee should Republicans manage to keep control of the Senate in the midterms. That would give the MAGA stalwart the power to decide the fate of the “blue slip,” which lets senators block any home-state district court judge, federal marshal or U.S. attorney nomination they oppose.

The decision risks pitting Lee against his Senate GOP colleagues, many of whom support the status quo. It also all but guarantees a public pressure campaign from Trump, with whom Lee has worked to ingratiate himself over the past two years.

Lee said in an interview that he didn’t expect to eliminate blue slips — actual pieces of paper senators sign to indicate their support for a nominee — but he left the door open to changing how the tradition is enforced.

“There is no appetite to just get rid of them,” Lee said before adding, “The blue slip itself has had a lot of evolution and it’s almost never static. Though it doesn’t mean that everything about the blue slip procedure will always be the same.”

Lee said it was “premature” to discuss in detail how he would approach the matter and noted it had undergone “iterative changes” as previous Judiciary chairs had “considered and in many many cases implemented [alterations] just in order to deal with things as they happen.”

Trump has a simpler view of the matter — demanding Senate Republicans completely ditch the blue slip, which he views as an intolerable fetter on his power to install federal judges. Current Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has repeatedly fended off Trump’s calls to end the practice, explaining that most of his fellow senators have no interest in giving up leverage in who gets home-state appointments.

Asked how the White House would want Lee to handle blue slips, a spokesperson pointed back to several of the president’s comments over the past year, including an October 2025 Truth Social post where he called it an “old and ridiculous custom.” Trump targeted Grassley directly last December, saying that it was “shocking” that he would allow “this scam to continue.”

More recently, Trump lamented the “ridiculous views of Republicans on blue slipping” when he temporarily backed off Jay Clayton’s director of national intelligence nomination, which derailed a bipartisan surveillance deal. Clayton himself had previously been caught in a blue slip fight after Trump nominated him as U.S. attorney in Manhattan, and Trump feared a repeat.

While Senate colleagues widely expect Lee to face the same pressure from Trump that Grassley has endured, several Republicans indicated in interviews they hope Lee sticks to precedent.

“I think, you know, he’s a traditionalist, and I think he’ll honor the blue slip,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a longtime Judiciary Committee member who is leaving the Senate at the start of next year.

For one thing, Lee is likely to face immense peer pressure. While Lee could unilaterally scrap or modify the blue slip precedent as Judiciary chair, he’d risk angering some fellow Republicans who want to keep control of nominations in their back yards — including under future Democratic administrations.

“Senators have few prerogatives and tools, and that’s one of them,” Cornyn said.

Lee also confronts the prospect that, in a thin GOP majority, a small number of fellow Republican senators could hem him in by pledging to oppose any nominees that do not have home-state-senator support.

Grassley nodded to that reality amid Trump’s pressure last year, posting on X that “a U.S. Atty/district judge nominee without a blue slip does not [have] the votes to get confirmed on the Senate floor & they don’t [have] the votes to get out of [committee].”

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, said he would vote in committee and on the floor to preserve the blue slips.

“I know who is qualified in my state to be a federal judge a lot better than somebody in Washington, D.C., does,” Kennedy said, predicting that Republicans would be able to “outvote” Lee were he to move to eliminate them.

With the GOP unlikely in the next Congress to maintain the three-vote cushion it now enjoys, Lee would need to convince potentially every Republican on the Judiciary Committee — and nearly every Republican in the chamber — to back him up.

That could be difficult, given the strong support within the Republican conference for keeping the blue slip as is, according to two GOP aides granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics. Lee’s emerging role will also require him to win over many of the same colleagues he has alienated over the past year with his advocacy for a partisan elections bill that has no clear path to passage.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said late last year that there are “way more Republican senators who are interested in preserving” the blue slip “that those who aren’t.”

“I have to assume everybody supports the blue slip,” Grassley said in an interview Tuesday, voicing his support for keeping it as-is.

“A president of the United States can’t know exactly what is going on in those individual states, and you need to guarantee senator input for marshals, U.S. attorneys, and district judges,” he said.

That said, Lee is correct that the blue-slip precedent has already been eroded: Republicans effectively ended the practice for circuit judges during Trump’s first term, arguing at the time that courts of appeals cover broad regions and thus shouldn’t be subject to veto by a single state’s senator.

Lee said amid that debate in a 2018 Judiciary Committee hearing that the blue slip “is not, and never has been, codified as a rule.”

“Its use as a de facto veto has definitely been the exception rather than the rule,” Lee said.

During his second term, Trump has erupted over instances where Democrats have used the blue slip to block — or at least complicate — the confirmations of his favored nominees.

Schumer and fellow New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand refused to greenlight Clayton’s U.S. attorney nomination; he was later appointed to the job by Manhattan’s federal judges.

But New Jersey Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim successfully blocked the nomination of Alina Habba to become their state’s permanent U.S. attorney last year, and Trump’s pick for U.S. attorney in Southern California, Bill Essayli, was also sidelined due to Democratic opposition.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Judiciary Democrat and a prior chair of the committee, said that he was largely in the dark about Lee’s views on the blue slip but urged the Utah Republican to “think twice” before undoing it.

“I stuck with it through thick and thin,” Durbin said. “A lot of people who criticized me as chairman for observing it thanked me after we lost the majority. … So I hope he sticks with it.”

Congress

Senate Republicans stew on pre-election dilemma: Should they stay or should they go?

Published

25 minutes ago

September 23, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Facing rising gas prices, an Iran war with no end in sight and increasingly dire midterm polling, Senate Republicans are facing a crucial choice this week: fight or flight.

Some GOP lawmakers are caught between their desire to use the rest of the scant pre-election legislative calendar to improve their standing with voters and the likelihood there probably isn’t much they can do anyway.

House Republicans have already fled Washington until after the Nov. 3 election, and the Senate is set to spend the week debating a bipartisan bill overhauling the multibillion-dollar college sports industry with no firm idea of what comes after.

The split screen between the real economic pain hitting Americans and the relatively light stakes of the Senate floor agenda had several anxious GOP lawmakers raising concerns over cost-of-living issues amid signs that their majority is in real peril.

The college sports bill “needs to be done,” said Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.), “but I wouldn’t say it’s top priority in the minds of people in North Carolina or in the world.”

“If you list all the problems that they are facing right now, it’s not college sports,” he continued. “Yeah, it’s a problem, but it’s not the top problem. I mean, it’s affordability, it’s fuel prices, it’s grocery prices. It’s getting this war behind us.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is for now keeping his options open about what to do once the college sports legislation is disposed of, and that topic is expected to be discussed during a closed-door GOP lunch Wednesday.

But one very real option is simply joining the House in calling it quits till after the election — which is what several GOP senators and aides who were granted anonymity to speak candidly said they expect to happen this week.

Should they leave, Republican senators would be essentially standing pat with their legislative record, even with voters clamoring for more help while blaming Trump in a spate of recent polling.

“If there was something that we could get done that would help, I’d be all for it,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said when asked about possible legislation to address rising costs. “But I don’t know what it would be at this point.”

The slim hope that any piece of affordability legislation could possibly get across the Senate floor in the final weeks of September has others in the GOP eager to simply get their vulnerable colleagues back on the campaign trail and make their case directly to voters. It’s highly unlikely any bill could get to President Donald Trump’s desk, anyway, given the House’s absence.

So long as senators stay in the Capitol, they are exposing themselves to a barrage of off-message questions about the Iran war and spiraling energy prices — not to mention the latest Trump-related controversies, such as his White House media ban and reports that a Russian oligarch helped finance his son’s wedding.

To keep the focus on affordability, several endangered senators are making last-ditch appeals for legislative action.

They include Republicans who are coalescing behind a plan to have the Trump administration temporarily curb diesel exports — including Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan, who is running in a tough race in a state Trump easily won in 2024 — even as oil industry allies warned it would have little effect or potentially even raise prices in some parts of the country.

“American fuel should stay home with Americans,” Sullivan said in a Tuesday statement.

Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) continued to push Tuesday for further action on a bill he authored aimed at getting data center developers to cover their own energy costs. The bill easily passed the House but was blocked from fast-track consideration last week by Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, who argued the measure didn’t go far enough.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said it would be “stupid” for Republicans not to stay in town and jump through the days of procedural hoops required to put Husted’s bill up for a vote.

“When moms and dads lie down and sleep at night, and can’t, they’re not lying there worried about the football coaches, they’re worried about the cost of living,” Kennedy said. “It’s foolish both policy-wise and political-wise not to put it on the floor. … [But] I wouldn’t faint with surprise if Senator Thune said, ‘Y’all go home.’”

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), who is also in a closer-than-expected race, said GOP leaders could put his bill limiting credit card fees up for vote, claiming it would “lower the cost of gasoline two or three percent.” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), meanwhile, said she wants to see her bipartisan bill capping insulin prices get a floor vote next week.

“You’re always torn, but I expected to be in session next week,” Collins said when asked if it would be better to stay or go. She added that passing the insulin bill, a stalled appropriations measure and legislation to overhaul energy permitting ”would make a real difference.”

Only the energy permitting bill still appears to have a shot of reaching the Senate floor — and senators and aides acknowledge it’s a long one. Republicans believe it would let them show voters they are capable of addressing cost-of-living issues before the election, even if the effects of the legislation won’t be felt for years. Some Democrats believe now is the best time to win concessions from the Trump administration that could help achieve clean energy goals.

Thune pointed to the ongoing permitting talks as one of the reasons that the schedule remains “up in the air” — calling it “something I think most of our members believe is really, really consequential legislation and worthwhile.”

During a floor speech Tuesday, Thune touted the work already done by Republicans, saying they had “spent the last two years delivering on our agenda” — putting “more money in your pocket,” working to lower taxes for families and making “homeownership more affordable.”

But he also acknowledged the political headwinds facing his party in the midterms, telling reporters that he was “hopeful” about their chances of keeping the majority but also “realistic.”

“It’s a very competitive environment out there — a lot of tight races, many of them in the margin of error,” Thune said, but added that Republicans had superior candidates, an aggressive ground game and a “compelling message.”

Kelsey Brugger and Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.

Congress

Paul: ICE hasn’t shared information about Minneapolis shooting probes

Published

10 hours ago

September 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Department of Homeland Security still has not shared the findings from its investigations into the January killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis, despite continued requests from the top Republican on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the chair of the panel, said during a brief hallway interview that DHS has not yet given the committee any information from internal probes into any shootings involving immigration officers.

Asked if that included the two January shootings in Minneapolis, where immigration officers shot and killed two American citizens, Paul said: “We’ve asked for information. We’re still asking.”

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Paul’s comments come as DHS faces continued bipartisan scrutiny following several incidents where ICE or Border Patrol agents used deadly force against individuals they were trying to apprehend. Several of those individuals were U.S. citizens.

Most recently, ICE agents Saturday shot an unauthorized immigrant who faced deportation. The man, 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, survived. His lawyers claim he has been transferred into ICE custody despite still having a bullet lodged in his back.

Paul had asked DHS earlier this year to share more information about its reviews of the shootings, and did not schedule a confirmation hearing for the administration’s ICE director nominee as he awaited those findings. The White House ultimately pulled that nomination last week as the nomination stalled.

Congress

GOP Armed Services chair blasts White House welcome of Chinese leader

Published

11 hours ago

September 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker lambasted the White House decision to invite Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a state dinner this week, calling the foreign head of state “a brutal, unelected and oppressive dictator” who cannot be trusted.

Wicker, typically a staunch defender of President Donald Trump and Republican loyalist, targeted most of his criticism at Xi and Chinese policy during a Senate floor speech Tuesday. But the comments were nonetheless a surprise rebuke of the president’s courting of Beijing amid broader concerns, such as the durability of U.S. security commitments to the Indo-Pacific, including in deterring a potential invasion of Taiwan from the Chinese mainland.

The Mississippi Republican urged Trump to press the Chinese premier on a variety of sensitive topics — including purported support for Iran, its military buildup and human rights abuses.

“Had the White House asked me for advice, I would have suggested the president not invite Xi Jinping to Washington for such a lavish welcome here in the United States, based on all of the troubling issues we have with President Xi and the Chinese Communist Party,” he said.

“I know the president tends to discuss trade and artificial intelligence with the Chinese leadership, and rightfully so,” he said. “Perhaps some progress will be made. But … during every minute of dialog, our commander in chief should keep in mind that his guest is a brutal, unelected and oppressive dictator who seeks to dominate his neighbors and whose massive military arsenal is aimed directly at the United States of America.”

The senior Republican’s comments on the Senate floor were delivered just a few hours before Xi’s expected arrival in Washington. Trump has scheduled a formal welcome ceremony for Xi and his wife at the White House on Thursday, along with talks between the two leaders throughout his three-day visit.

Trump is facing bipartisan criticism over the state visit by Xi. Wicker’s comments followed similar attacks on Chinese leadership from Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Ted Budd (R-N.C.).

“President Trump has been clear that under his leadership, the United States must engage with China, given the reality of our economic relationship,” Budd said. “But we can’t forget that China is also a competitor and an adversary.”