Washington (CNN) White House press secretary Sarah Sanders suggested Tuesday that the White House has found an alternative way to get its requested $5 billion in funding for a US-Mexico border wall, marking a reversal from President Donald Trump's previous position.

While Democratic leaders immediately rejected the proposal, the comments represented the White House's most significant steps in recent weeks toward trying to avert a partial government shutdown ahead of a Friday deadline. With Democratic opposition, however, members of Congress on both sides appeared to be instead considering a short-term extension of funding to move the deadline beyond the year-end holiday season into Congress' new term, which begins January 3.

Earlier Tuesday, Sanders indicated that the White House could support a compromise bill to avoid such a shutdown.

"We have other ways that we can get to that $5 billion (for a border wall)," Sanders said Tuesday morning during an interview with Fox News.

"We will work with Congress if they will make sure we get a bill passed that provides not just the funding for the wall, but there's a piece of legislation that's been pushed around that Democrats actually voted 26-5 out of committee that provides roughly $26 billion for border security including $1.6 billion for the wall," she said. "That's something that we would be able to support as a long as we can couple that with other funding resources."

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