House Republicans retreated behind closed doors to try to hash things out in a meeting that lasted more than an hour. Afterward, the leadership announced that the GOP Conference will meet again on Friday morning in another attempt to find consensus within their own ranks.

When asked why they couldn’t get enough support for the legislation, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said it was “100 different things.”

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“I am disappointed,” Rogers said, noting he thought it was a “very adequate bill.”

Rep. Devin Nunes, who would have supported the legislation, said there is a group of GOP lawmakers who aren’t interested in governing.

“You just had a lot of members who just don’t want to vote for anything,” the California Republican said. “We have to get to 218 votes or you can’t pass anything.”

Nunes acknowledged that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and conservative groups like Heritage Action strongly opposed the package and pushed members hard to vote against it. GOP lawmakers and aides said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), another opponent, had put immense pressure on Alabama Republicans to come out against the measure, and his efforts appeared to be successful.

“We just put someone new into leadership, new leadership team, new whip people…. same roadblocks every time,” Nunes said. “There are just a lot of people who are more concerned about the groups or their Senate colleagues than they are about actually leading.”

Still, the cause of the angst about the bill is up for debate. Democrats have seized on Cruz as a likely culprit. But Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) stood up in the closed meeting Thursday afternoon and said he met with Cruz Wednesday, and the Texas Republican suggested he vote for the GOP leadership’s plan today.

Bridenstine’s spokesman disputed the account, saying Cruz said voting “either way would be good as far as he was concerned.”

Some members defended the conservative faction’s revolt against the leadership.

“I’m not sure money is the issue as much policy is the issue,” said Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), who is drafting his own alternative bill with a handful of other members opposed to the leadership bill. “We’re going to sit down and start from scratch and see what we can come up with.”

Despite a rough start for the new leadership team, Republicans weren’t blaming Scalise for the setback.

Rep. James Lankford, who is running for Senate in Oklahoma, also didn’t blame the GOP leadership team.

“This has nothing to do with the whip team, this is about people voting the way they want to vote,” Lankford said.

House GOP Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.) attempted to blame the debacle on Obama, saying Republicans didn’t trust him enough to enforce the law, so they came out in opposition to their own leadership’s proposal.

“What’s at the heart of it is the lack of trust our members have with this administration,” McMorris Rodgers insisted. “You look at what this administration has done in the past on immigration and what they’re getting ready to do in the future… Even if we were able to get a good law, they don’t have any trust or confidence that this administration would enforce it.”

But Democrats openly mocked a statement released by House GOP leaders saying there are “numerous steps the president can and should be taking right now, without the need for congressional action, to secure our borders and ensure these children are returned swiftly and safely to their countries.” Minority Whip Steny Hoyer’s (D-Md.) office and other Democrats noted that Republicans had just voted the day before to sue Obama for allegedly abusing his executive power, yet were now calling on him to use his executive power to solve the border crisis.

Lauren French contributed to this report.