Washington (CNN) The Office of Personnel Management directed federal agencies to hold off on issuing expected pay raises for a number of senior government officials, including Vice President Mike Pence and Cabinet members, in a memo Friday evening.

Dozens of high-ranking officials were supposed to see an increase in their salary, while hundreds of thousands of federal employees and government contractors are unsure when they will see their next paychecks amid the partial government shutdown.

Last month, Congress failed to extend the pay freeze on the raises, which would have ended effectively on Saturday and let the increases kick in.

But the OPM "believes it would be prudent for agencies to continue to pay these senior political officials at the frozen rate until appropriations legislation is enacted that would clarify the status of the freeze," Margaret Weichert, the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, wrote in the memo.

OPM plans to issue new guidance once Congress passes updated legislation, Weichert said in the memo.

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