U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Montgomery) is frustrated with her colleagues on the other side of the aisle over their unwillingness to make a deal to prevent another partial government shutdown.

The Senate failed to pass a two week stopgap bill Thursday to fund the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which will run out of funding by Saturday.

DHS is the lone major department still facing a funding cliff after Congress enacted full-year FY2026 spending for most of the rest of government earlier this month, leaving Homeland Security on a short-term patch.

Britt, who was instrumental in negotiating with Democrats to end the government shutdown in 2025, is no longer optimistic that a deal can be made this week.

The senator discussed the issue Thursday on WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show.”

“The White House has done a really great job,” Britt said. “The White House has lead here in putting forth real solutions and being thoughtful about how we stand with our law enforcement officers and give them the tools they need to keep themselves and our community safe, and they walked away from this.”

Britt believes the Democrats have been completely disingenuous throughout the whole negotiation period.

“And look, it’s political theater,” she argued. “It’s totally political theater, because think about this. They are, instead of taking some of what they would believe are advancements, they are walking away so that they can placate to their leftist base. Because instead of putting in what they believe are proper reforms, they’re just saying, ‘No, we don’t want to deal with this at all.’”

The senator said government shutdowns aren’t good for anyone, but especially harm the workers involved.

“So I don’t think it’s ever easy to go into any kind of government shutdown,” she said, “because every single one of these people depend on their paychecks, and we are asking them to show up to work, and yet, not receiving a paycheck, not being able to pay their bills, their mortgage, their child care, their gas.”

Britt also took to the floor of the Senate on Thursday to press for a clean two-week DHS stopgap, warning Democrats that blocking it would force a partial shutdown and risk paychecks for frontline federal workers.

She said Republicans will continue to try and work with Democrats to avoid a shutdown. But as chair of the Senate Appropriations Homeland Security subcommittee, Britt knows well where Senate Democrats are currently making unreasonable demands.

“Let’s keep working in good faith,” she said. “I hope that they take that opportunity to say, ‘Yeah, let’s do that,’ but I am not holding my breath, because for them, this is all about politics. They’re not thinking about the fact that they they’re also coming up with plans of like, let’s just defund ice all together.”

“I mean, there are really important things that they I think they don’t even understand what they’re saying they want to defund,” she added. “And I think it’s disingenuous, and I think that they’re just placating to their base. And at some point you’ve got to lead. That’s certainly what the President’s trying to do, that’s certainly what Republicans are trying to do, is have a conversation and find a pathway forward.”

Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee