Capitol Hill adage: Freshman senators should be seen and not heard. That idea has been in decline for a while, and it was definitely not part of the orientation packet for the big GOP class of 2015.

Less than six weeks into their new terms, the dozen newest Republican senators have quickly made a mark on Capitol Hill, both in front of the cameras and behind closed doors. Republican leaders have enlisted them to rebut President Obama and to try to break a logjam with the House GOP. One flashed his comedy chops at a swanky dinner. Another attracted national attention with unusually sharp language at a committee hearing.

Perhaps most notably, they have become reliable allies for GOP leaders. None are showing signs they want to be the prickly, renegade types so much in evidence in the last two classes: There appear to be no Ted Cruzes or any Mike Lees.

“I know they’re eager to find ways to contribute to the Senate,” said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.) of the new class. He later added: “We’ve certainly indicated that they should feel free to pursue whatever they want to as new senators.”

Which is a little easier to do when they are on board with the leadership.

Even Democrats are taking notice.

“Several of them have emerged already in significant roles, and I’m sure that Mitch McConnell is going to encourage more to do the same,” said Senate Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.).

The GOP freshmen, who swept into office in November’s election along with only one new Democrat, recently played a key part in the standoff between House and Senate Republicans over funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Sens. Cory Gardner (Colo.) and Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), both members of the House last year, spoke at a closed-door meeting of their former House GOP colleagues in the Capitol basement in an effort to ease the tensions that have flared.

“We didn’t come here to sit on the sidelines and watch the work get done,” Gardner said in an interview.

Six of the 12 new Republican senators came directly from the House. The DHS stalemate has elevated their profile, since they have associations in the other chamber that their more senior colleagues do not.

“That’s always important, to continue to burnish those relationships across the Capitol,” Cornyn said.

The Republican freshmen who came from jobs outside Washington are also making a splash. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), once a little-known state senator who exploded onto the national radar with a viral ad campaign about castrating hogs last year, is a rising Republican star. She delivered the official GOP response to Obama’s State of the Union address.

Gardner also appears at ease under the spotlight. He cracked jokes at the annual Congressional Dinner earlier this month, comfortably zinging his colleagues.

The way the new Republican senators have served as loyal foot soldiers for GOP leaders and endeared themselves to senior colleagues seems to suggest they want to take a different path than Cruz (R-Texas) and Lee (R-Utah), who repeatedly have angered their Republican colleagues.

“Each member of the Senate has their own approach when it comes to their role in this institution,” Durbin said. “Some will wait quietly and emerge slowly. Others, and I can think of one senator from Texas, don’t wait at all. They just move right in.”

Together, Cruz and Lee led an effort to defund Obama’s health-care law that many blame for the 2013 government shutdown. And despite being named a vice chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee shortly after his election, Cruz declined to endorse Republican senators, including Cornyn and McConnell, in their 2014 primaries.

Gardner said the freshmen senators plan to participate soon in an NRSC fundraising effort. It was through training sessions at the NRSC, after all, that some of the new Republicans got to know each other.

“We even went through, in some ways, the rigors of the campaign together,” said Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), who unseated Democrat Mark Begich.

The Republican freshmen are also seeking to have their voices heard on national security issues. Five of the 14 Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee are freshmen, including three who have served in the military: Ernst, Sullivan and Sen. Tom Cotton (Ark.).

Cotton, an Iraq War veteran, made headlines when he remarked at a recent Armed Services hearing that Guantanamo Bay detainees can “rot in hell.”

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a leading national security hawk who also sits on the panel and opposes closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, said: “I think I know where he’s coming from on Gitmo.”

More broadly, Graham said it’s “wonderful to have these new members so engaged in the McCain-Graham wing of the foreign policy camp.”

Congress is now in its first recess of the new year, giving the freshmen a little bit of a breather after a whirlwind first few weeks. But when they return, they will confront difficult problems their party has yet to resolve.

Despite Gardner and Capito’s visit with House Republicans, Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) is still pressuring the Senate to pass the DHS funding bill that has already cleared the House. But Senate Republican leaders have said the bill is too conservative to win enough Democratic support to pass their chamber.

Current DHS funding expires on Feb. 27, leaving little time for a resolution.

On foreign policy and national security, comments such as Cotton’s on Guantanamo may intensify an already fierce debate that is raging between the GOP hawks and the libertarian-leaning wing of the party, which is led unofficially by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). The debate is expected to receive more attention as the 2016 presidential campaign takes shape.

“We’re just trying to find a rhythm and find a way to add value,” said Sen. David Perdue, a freshman Republican from Georgia.