"We will not fund states that allow anarchy," she told reporters.
The federal government remains closed amid a bitter impasse on Capitol Hill over competing congressional spending bills.
President Donald Trump and Republicans have cast blame for the shutdown on Democrats' health care demands, while Democrats insist Republicans need to negotiate.
The Trump administration has threatened mass layoffs of some federal workers during the shutdown.
Trump told reporters that his administration was close to finalizing a deal with Harvard University, which would include the university paying $500 million and operating trade schools.
"This would be a giant trade school, a series of trade schools. It would be run by Harvard," he added.
Harvard and the Department of Education did not immediately have a comment.
-ABC News' Hannah Demissie
Staff from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Social Security Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Office of Personnel Management also received a partisan letter that blamed Democrats for the imminent shutdown, according to emails reviewed by ABC News.
The emails blame "unrelated policy demands" of congressional Democrats.
-ABC News' Will Steakin
President Donald Trump was asked about laying off federal workers if a government shutdown happens.
The president again blamed Democrats but admitted that "a lot of good things can come from shutdowns."
"We can get rid of a lot of things that we didn't want," he said.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday that will "massively accelerate pediatric cancer research and harness the extraordinary potential of artificial intelligence to fight this terrible disease."
He said that $50 million that is invested into pediatric cancer research will be doubled for the "childhood cancer data initiative."
Trump said with this order, he is "directing the federal government to fully utilize artificial intelligence to supercharge pediatric cancer research."
