Senate Republicans say something needs to change about the House's communications
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Senate Republicans are looking at their relationship with the House GOP as they prepare for another key test of their unity across the board.
Inefficiencies, miscommunications and wasted time have plagued the last few months of Congressional control, especially during the longest government shutdown in history.
Republicans in the upper chamber are not picking others in the House who should shoulder the responsibilities, but they agree that something needs to change as they move forward to fund immigrant jobs over the next few years.
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Senate Republicans have grown frustrated with their colleagues in the House over the sluggish pace of legislation. Some argue that it is a breakdown in communication between the leadership, others blame it on how different the two groups are. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images; Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
“I think we all need to get in the room and figure out what our plan is,” Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., told Fox News Digital. “And how are we going to do things for the American people? That has to be the goal, and right now something has to change.”
Republicans are preparing to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol for the next three and a half years through budget reconciliation, which will require total disagreement in both chambers to make it work, as Democrats are pulling out of the plan.
But divisions between chambers were exposed during the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), when House Republicans, led by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., refused to consider a Senate compromise plan to reopen the agency.
That decision extended the shutdown for about a month, and fueled the demand for reconciliation. It also fueled frustration between the Senate and the House as the leadership and President Donald Trump sought unity.
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Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., attends a Senate hearing at the US Capitol. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Both Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, RS.D., have more minorities to work with — Johnson more so than Thune. That fact is not lost on Senate Republicans, especially on legislation that Democrats will not support, and currently prevents knives from leaving the upper chamber.
“I mean, I think we understand the challenges that Mike has there. He is not the king. He is the speaker of the House,” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., told Fox News Digital. “And their margin of error is less than ours, proportionally. So I can't imagine. I think he's doing his best.”
Some Republicans argue that it's a bigger problem of communication between chambers than House dysfunction.
Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital that he didn't buy the “the entire House is dysfunctional” argument, and instead said it was up to officials to make more of an effort.
“I think we should take a little ownership here in the Senate, and we don't [just] leadership, but all of us,” Moreno said. “Because when we work on bills, we have to have complete, complete agreement with the House.”
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Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., speaks to reporters after voting at the U.S. Capitol on March 4, 2026. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
House Republicans, for example, argued that they were blindsided by the Senate's deal to reopen the bulk of the DHS earlier this year that gutted ICE and Border Patrol funding.
“We have to be able to make sure that we communicate better and solve problems,” Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., told Fox News Digital. “The House is not our enemy. We should be able to solve all problems with a piece of legislation. We have differences of opinion. It's okay, let's fix it.”
The issue of communication is one that, since Republicans took power in both chambers last year, was largely handled by DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, a former GOP congressman who served as the de facto liaison between the two chambers for major legislative pressure.
When asked if Republicans need Mullin 2.0, Lankford said the main points of contact fall on Thune and Johnson.
And Thune was not quick to publicly criticize Johnson or House Republicans and noted that the nature of both chambers and the way they operate could lead to problems down the road.
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“Obviously we have a 60 vote limit,” Thune said. “We need Democrats. You know, he doesn't need Democrats, but he needs all Republicans, and that's a real challenge on a good day. And, you know, sometimes there aren't many good days here.”
On the other hand, the whip of the Senate Majority John Barrasso, R-Wyo., pointed out that despite these problems, if the Democrats were in control of the chambers, the American people would have been hit by the largest number of taxes in decades if the Republicans had not assembled a united base to pass the “big, good bill” of Trump.
“All of that would be counterproductive if the Democrats were in the majority and could do what they want to do to raise taxes,” Barrasso told Fox News Digital.
