Three Republican senators say Democratic lawmakers' monthslong refusal to help pass supplemental border funding is to blame for poor conditions at some U.S. border facilities.

Rick Scott of Florida, Josh Hawley of Missouri, and James Lankford of Oklahoma, all Republican senators, erupted during a hearing Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, calling it a waste of time.

"Until this wretched Congress decides to do something, I don't know why we even bother to have these hearings. I don't know why it even matters because this Congress will not act," said Hawley.

The trio lambasted their Democratic counterparts for stalling on a border supplemental bill and blaming U.S. Customs and Border Protection, as well as other Trump administration officials, for the deaths of people attempting to cross the border and poor conditions inside U.S. facilities.

Scott, who like Hawley joined the chamber in January, led the charge shortly after Maggie Hassan, a democratic senator from New Hampshire, told Customs and Border Protection witnesses their accounts of border operations contradicted news reports and attorney statements about children being neglected at a Border Patrol station in Clint, Texas.

"All they do is try to embarrass these individuals in here ... just lambaste them for what they're doing," said Scott, the former Florida governor. "I've been here six months, and I'm disgusted that we sit here and you watch on the news where people that are trying to do their job get attacked and Congress sits here and doesn't do their job. It's the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in my entire career — in my business career. You wouldn't do this in your business career."

Lankford listed a handful of emergency funding requests then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen made this spring and how she had warned of a "systemic meltdown" that would result in more fatal incidents because of the dramatic increase in people traveling to the border and in custody.

"Instead of actually providing funding for her in that period, this Congress delayed and didn't provide the funding and didn't engage," Lankford said. "Children are currently being used as pawns now on the border to try ... and my Democratic colleagues are trying to identify children that are not getting care at the same time of slowing down the process of trying to get humanitarian aid to try and hurt this presidential election."

Hawley said lawmakers "should be apologizing to you for the total dereliction of duty" after leaving Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement "underfunded" but still expecting safe conditions to be maintained.

"I have never seen anything like it in my life. This is, by my count, the sixth hearing — full hearing — I've sat through in four months on the border, which is great. I'm glad we're paying some attention to it. The problem is this Congress never does anything," said Hawley.

The committee chairman, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, tried to refocus the group and said next week the committee would begin discussions on short-term and long-term solutions for resolving the border crisis.

"We need to start doing something. It is well past time. And that picture that all Americans woke up this morning looking at, again should be used as a catalyst for that kind of action," Johnson, a Republican, said, referring to a viral image of a migrant father and toddler who drowned this week while crossing the border.

Still, Lankford pushed back, and told Johnson, "I think what we're experiencing today is some pent-up, abject total frustration" with the process.

"I'm tired of people calling my office and asking how come you don't care about the kids," said Lankford. "If 500 people showed up at your house tomorrow and said, 'I'm going to stay here for a week,' would your house be ready to take care of 500 people?"