WASHINGTON — Republicans who have been so disciplined in their opposition to President Obama are now finding themselves badly splintered over how to keep the Department of Homeland Security operating as they struggle to demonstrate they can govern effectively as the party that controls Congress.
The split between Senate and House Republicans has become increasingly public, and on Wednesday, the two sides showed little inclination toward compromise.
Democrats have been unified in their opposition to the Republican approach passed by the House that would provide money to keep the department open, but also reverse Mr. Obama’s executive actions on immigration. In tones mocking and defiant, House Republican leaders signaled that the next move was up to their Senate colleagues.
“I love Mitch,” said House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio, referring to the Republican majority leader, Mitch McConnell, even as he placed responsibility to avert a shutdown of the agency squarely in the other chamber. “The House did its job,” he said. “Now it’s time for the Senate to do their work.”
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Mr. Kirk said he thought Republicans “ought to strip the bill of extraneous issues.” The way forward, he said, “is just fund D.H.S.”
In the meantime, Mr. Gingrich — who after leading his Republican revolution in 1994 often found himself frustrated with Bob Dole, the Republican majority leader in the Senate — counseled “cheerful persistence.”
“If I were Boehner and McConnell, I would figure out how to win my argument back home. I’d design bills to win the argument back home, and then I’d be cheerful as the Democrats insist on beating their own brains out,” Mr. Gingrich said.
Emmarie Huetteman contributed reporting.
