White House: Obama Will Sign 3 Week Extension of DHS Funding if House Passes

"If the president is faced with a choice of having the Department of Homeland Security shut down or fund that department for a short-term, the president is not going to allow the agency to shut down. 

But, let's remember how exactly we got here. We got here because back in December, the Speaker of the House had on his desk a compromise proposal that had bipartisan support to fund the entire federal government through the end of the fiscal year through September 30th. 

And he made a strategic calculation that he would fund the entire government through the end of the fiscal year, except for the Department of Homeland Security. And he said, We're gonna hold back the funding for the Department of Homeland Security until we can figure out how to maximize our political advantage. We want to figure out the best way that we can actually score some political points with the passage of that budget.

Now, here we are, two months later, a little over two months later. It is the day of the self-imposed deadline, the deadline that was imposed by Republicans. And apparently, over the course of the last two months, they have not yet figured out how to maximize their political advantage. And it exposes the danger of playing politics with our homeland security and it represents an abject failure of leadership on the part of the new Republican majority to not get this done. 

So the truth is if the president is faced with the choice between the short-term extension and shutting down the Department of Homeland Security, he will sign the short-term extension. But the good news is that's not the choice that's facing the Speaker of the House and it's not the choice that should be facing every member of the United States Congress. 

Right now, the choice the Speaker is facing is are we gonna fund the agency for three weeks, or we're gonna fund it for the full year, and are we gonna do it at levels that are agreed upon by Democrats and Republicans as clearly in the best interest of the American people. 

So the truth is the choice for the president is a little difficult, but the choice for the Speaker of the House is really easy. Let's hope he makes the right one."