House Republicans have always found solace in attacking the Senate. They routinely assailed former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, making him a boogeyman on the campaign trail and the face of anti-Trump Republicans.
Now, some House Republicans are trying to use that same playbook against Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
“It’s time for Thune to grow a set of balls,” Rep. Andy Ogles told NOTUS.
Most of the frustration stems from a voter ID bill, the SAVE America Act, getting held up in the Senate due to the 60-vote threshold required to pass nearly all legislation. The bill, a top priority for President Donald Trump, would essentially eliminate mail-in voting except in certain circumstances and require a physical ID and proof of citizenship to vote.
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It passed the House in a mostly party-line fashion, but Thune and the rest of Senate GOP leadership is under pressure to change the rules to ditch the 60-vote requirement and implement a “talking filibuster.” Thune has long resisted pressure to do so — and the votes to change the rules simply aren’t there. But conservatives in the House are attempting to turn him into the next McConnell: an establishment Republican whom they see as undermining Trump at every turn.
“Nuke the filibuster, pass all this stuff and pass Trump’s executive orders,” Ogles added.
Some Republicans have gotten so fed up with the Senate that they have said they’ll block any legislation that comes over from the upper chamber until the SAVE America Act is passed. Despite their efforts, they have been unsuccessful, and at least two Senate bills passed out of the House this week.
Rep. Tim Burchett said he’s grown disappointed in Thune’s leadership.
“I just don’t think he’s following through on what he needs to do,” Burchett said.
Rep. Keith Self, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, concurred with Burchett that Thune hasn’t proven to be any better than McConnell.
“We need to keep up the pressure,” Self said. “The American people will make this happen.”
Rep. Michael Cloud, another member of the Freedom Caucus, concurred, saying that he is “generally speaking, disappointed with what we’ve seen in the Senate.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert told NOTUS that “disappointment isn’t a solution” and that Thune “needs to get it right and actually make members of the Senate debate.”
The House has complained about the Senate, likely since the signing of the Constitution. The House-hates-the-Senate trope is often mocked by senators and their aides alike.
“Are these geniuses in the House aware of the existence of Mitch McConnell, Chuck Grassley, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Thom Tillis and the other 15 Republican senators who will never vote to blow up the filibuster?” one senior aide to a Trump-allied senator quipped to NOTUS.
Another senior Senate GOP aide pushed back on the criticism from House members, telling NOTUS that “some people seem to think there’s a magic talking-filibuster switch that Thune can simply flip on. It takes 51 members to agree to a process, not a unilateral decision by the leader.”
“Thune knows his members, and he knows how the Senate works,” the aide continued. “If some House Republicans want to blame him and other Senate Republicans because they’re upset about Senate procedure, that’s their prerogative, but it’s not a winning message to take to voters in November, to state the obvious. When Republicans fight Republicans, Democrats win.”
The aide pointed to how Thune “confirmed President Trump’s Cabinet at the fastest pace in 20 years” and was able to push through a rules change allowing the Senate to approve Trump’s nominations in batches with a simple majority. Additionally, Thune was “instrumental in putting the Working Families Tax Cuts bill on the president’s desk,” the aide said of Republicans’ domestic policy bill.
Republicans in the Senate still overwhelmingly back Thune and understand the tough position he is in.
“John Thune has a hard job and puts policies on the floor when he has the votes to pass them. The reality is we don’t have the votes to nuke the filibuster and with precious floor time left before the midterms, we need to be focused on conservative priorities we can achieve,” Sen. Tim Sheehy told NOTUS in a statement.
Though conservative members of the House and the Senate have complaints about how Thune is doing his job, the voices with the most weight have tried to stay above the fray when pressed on the issue.
“I have to work with Leader Thune on that. I don’t tell him how to run the Senate, and he doesn’t tell me how to run the House,” Speaker Mike Johnson said last week. “But we coordinate as best as we can.”
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