White House budget director Mick Mulvaney believes Congress will find a solution to avoid or end a government shutdown in the next 24 hours.
"I think there's a deal in the next 24 hours,” he said during an interview on CNN on Friday.
The House passed a stopgap spending measure to keep the government open Thursday night, but the possibility of a government shutdown remains in the hands of the Senate, which has until midnight to agree on a spending deal before federal funding runs out.
Mulvaney didn't seem phased by the midnight deadline as federal offices will be closed until Monday.
“I look at it more in terms of what gets done before offices are supposed to open on Monday,” he said.
Democrats have pushed back on the spending bill, because they are trying to secure a deal to protect "Dreamers" covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which prevents those who came to the U.S. illegally as children from being deported.
President Trump met with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Friday in an attempt to hash out a solution. Trump later deemed it an “excellent” meeting.
Schumer said he and Trump had a “good number of disagreements,” but acknowledged the two parties made some progress.
Despite Schumer's opposition, at least three Democrats are on board with the short-term deal so far: Sens. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, and Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
The House finished its work earlier in the day, but lawmakers were told not to leave because of the uncertainty over the spending situation.
