Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-Willsboro) hopes her House colleagues will vote this week to approve the Senate bill funding the Department of Homeland Security for more than the one-week extension approved in the House Friday.

“I voted for this one week extension to prevent a shutdown and maintain funding for this critical agency,” Stefanik said after the 357-60 roll call in the House. The bill goes to President Barack Obama for his signature.

Failure to pass a funding bill would have forced DHS to cut back on services and suspend paying many of their employees.

“I do not support government shutdowns and will continue to vote to keep DHS funded,” she said.

“A one week extension is not the way to run our government, and I hope the Senate passed DHS funding measure will be brought to the floor next week,” the North Country congresswoman said.

“DHS funding is critical to our district because of the broad economic importance of our Canadian border, and the need to make sure that the thousands of North Country DHS employees are paid on time for their hard work,” she said.

She said earlier in the week that she supported a “clean” bill without the immigration policy language, in opposition to many in her party in the House

The Republican-led House has prolonged passage of any funding measure by including in earlier versions of their DHS funding bill provisions to reverse executive orders by Pres. Obama that would make it easier for some undocumented immigrants to stay in the U.S. Democrats said the rider was the wrong way to go about forming immigration policy.

The DHS funding bill was seen as critical as funding for the department was set to run out on Friday.

The one-week extension was seen as a way to get funds to the department while keeping alive Republican hopes of undoing Obama’s action.