“Is that frustrating for the House? You bet it’s frustrating in the House,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said of the GOP's stalled Senate legislative plans. | Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo Ryan vents over stalled GOP agenda in Senate

Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday said it was “extremely frustrating” that the Republican majority in the Senate had been unable to push through pieces of the GOP agenda that have passed in the House.

Equipped with graphs highlighting the disparity between the number of bills passed by the House and the number that have stalled in the Senate, Ryan (R-Wis.) aired his grievances during an interview on Fox News. He cited the upper chamber’s inability to convert on the Republican Party’s major goals thus far during the Trump administration.


“Is that frustrating for the House? You bet it’s frustrating in the House,” Ryan told Fox News’ Sean Hannity, saying that 274 of the 337 bills that have passed in the House as of Sept. 22 have not made it through the Senate.

Ryan singled out the Senate’s inability to pass a bill for repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act as a particular point of disappointment for House Republicans, while highlighting their successes on legislation for financial regulations and immigration.

“The point is we’re on schedule in the House,” he said. “We passed the health care bill back in May. We passed the repeal of Dodd-Frank. We did Kate’s law. We did sanctuary cities.”

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The bill known as “Kate’s law” would enhance sentences for deported criminals who illegally re-enter the U.S.

The House speaker also expressed support for getting rid of what he called the “crazy filibuster rule,” the 60-vote threshold to cut off debate in the upper chamber and allow a bill to move forward for a vote. Senate GOP leaders have repeatedly quashed attempts to kill the filibuster, and Ryan said Wednesday that he understood there simply isn’t enough support to change the rule.

“Of course I’d like to see them do majority votes on these things,” he said. “They don’t have the votes there for it, that’s the flat-simple answer.”

The speaker expressed optimism that the House and Senate would still be able to work together to pass their big-ticket legislative items by the end of the calendar year, possibly including health care and their latest push to change the tax code.

“We’re rooting for our friends in the Senate,” Ryan said. “We’re really disappointed in health care, but we still got a chance to get a lot of these big things done.”