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4w ago

GOP Senators Rebuke Trump’s Bid to End Blue-Slip Practice

The dispute reveals a rare GOP split over whether to uphold a century-old Senate custom that has left more than 250 of Trump’s nominees awaiting confirmation.

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President Donald Trump walks on the south lawn of the White House and points up at the new flag on July 13, 2025, in Washington, DC.
U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) speaks as Kash Patel, U.S. President Donald Trump's nominee to be director of the FBI, testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 30, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) walks to a vote at the U.S. Capitol July 17, 2025. (Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images)

Overview

  • President Trump on July 29 and 30 pressed Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley to abandon the blue-slip tradition to accelerate his judicial and U.S. attorney appointments.
  • Grassley refused to scrap the informal vetting process and said he was “offended” and “disappointed” by the president’s personal attacks.
  • Senators John Kennedy, Thom Tillis, Lisa Murkowski and Tommy Tuberville joined Grassley in defending the blue slip as vital for home-state input on district court and prosecutorial nominees.
  • The blue-slip process, though not enshrined in Senate rules, empowers individual senators to block nominees and has contributed to a backlog of roughly 250 of Trump’s picks in committee.
  • New Jersey Democrats Cory Booker and Andy Kim recently used blue-slip objections to block Alina Habba’s U.S. attorney nomination, prompting its withdrawal.