Protestors told the stories of increasing desperation on the part of federal workers and those who depend on them Tuesday, gathering outside the White House Tuesday as President Donald Trump addressed the nation on television.
On Friday, federal workers won't see an expected paycheck deposited into their bank accounts unless a deal is reached in time. Worried about paying for medicine, food and rent, many workers and their dependents have rallied online around the hashtag #ShutdownStories.
Organizer Kristin Mink brought those stories offline at the White House protest. She read stories from Twitter in front of lit-up signs saying, "fake crisis" and "no wall."
"I have cancer and can’t pay my drug co-payments if I don’t get my paycheck," Mink read from Twitter.
"These stories break your heart," Mink said.
Other protesters said that while they do not work for the government, the shutdown is starting to affect their lives.
"I’m afraid to fly to California for my friend’s funeral, because I’m worried the airports will shut down because the TSA agents are quitting," protester Rockefeller Twyman said.
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Maryland’s Republican Governor Larry Hogan expressed increasing frustration with the federal government shutdown in a speech Tuesday, as the shutdown stretched into the 18th day.
"I think we’re at the point right that no one in Congress in the House or the Senate should receive a paycheck and no one in The White House administration staff should receive a paycheck until they get this resolved rather than making the hard-working federal workers suffer any longer for their nonsense," Hogan said.
A number of local congress members, including Reps. Jennifer Wexton, D-Va., Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., and Dutch Ruppersburger, D-Md., have asked for their pay to be withheld or donated until the shutdown has ended.
