White House press secretary Josh Earnest Thursday highlighted the assassinations of two police officers in New York City in December to pressure Republicans to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security in coming weeks.

“Particularly in the aftermath of the terrible, tragic shooting of those two police officers in New York City, we saw some very aggressive rhetoric from Republicans suggesting that it was important for our men and women in uniform to know that their political leaders have their backs,” Earnest said of the shooting of NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu.