Hawley is among the latest critics Johnson is facing within his own party over his spending bill, which Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) confirmed was “dead” on Wednesday evening. The Missouri senator explained that included within the bill, which he deemed “a total joke,” is funding for censorship, a “recycling access center,” and a means for congressional members to opt out of Obamacare. 

“Here’s the thing that really gets me: Republicans negotiated this!” Hawley said on Fox News’s Hannity. “The speaker of the House negotiated this bill. It is a total travesty! This has got to change, Sean. I mean, we cannot go on like this, and I hope the Republican leadership gets the message here. The message of this election, which is that people want change, they don’t want this garbage. I’m a hard no on this thing, it is a joke, it is a travesty, and they need to go back to square one.”

Hawley also said the bill is just “the same old, same old” dedicated to funding Democratic priorities, questioning why Republicans would want to make President-elect Donald Trump deal with this next year. He also suspected House Republicans did not keep Trump in the loop during discussions when writing up the bill.

“And I tell you what, we need to have a serious look at who’s leading this Congress because if this is the best they can do, it’s just total incompetence,” Hawley said. “This is a disaster.”

Hawley’s criticism of Johnson comes shortly after he blamed the House speaker for his signature radiation exposure bill getting blocked, creating further frustration between the two. The senator accused Johnson of killing his bill while the House speaker is also “willing to spend BILLIONS on Ukraine and foreign wars.”

Amid the growing frustration between Johnson and other Republicans, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has advised him and the rest of the House Republicans not to do “dumb things” with their continuing resolution, suggesting a simple solution could be to pass a continuing resolution with “nothing on it” to keep the government open until Republicans regain the Senate next year. Gingrich cited his own experience as House speaker and how he and the House were able to balance the budget because they had “the guts” to do what needed to be done.