President Trump Donald John TrumpUS reimposes UN sanctions on Iran amid increasing tensions Jeff Flake: Republicans 'should hold the same position' on SCOTUS vacancy as 2016 Trump supporters chant 'Fill that seat' at North Carolina rally MORE's budget chief said Saturday that the executive branch is managing the shutdown "day by day," hours after the Senate failed to reach a government funding deal by a midnight deadline on Friday.

"We'll manage this day by day," said Mick Mulvaney Mick MulvaneyMick Mulvaney to start hedge fund Fauci says positive White House task force reports don't always match what he hears on the ground Bottom line MORE, the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) at a White House press briefing.

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Mulvaney said the office, which oversees the budgets of the presidential office and federal agencies, said several agencies could continue to operate without additional funds from the federal government for a short period, and panned Senate Democrats for allowing the shutdown.

"The Democrats in the Senate could end this shutdown today. We plan mostly a day at a time," he told reporters at the briefing. "Some agencies are going on quite a bit of carryforward funds, they could go out longer without being impacted. Some have none, so they'd be impacted immediately."

Mulvaney sent a memo to federal agencies on Saturday instructing them to begin an "orderly shutdown due to the absence of appropriations."

The OMB said Friday that the administration was aiming to mitigate the effects of the shutdown, and that agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission had enough funding to stay open for several days.