ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
This morning, President Trump also repeated his promise to keep parts of the government closed until Congress agrees to fund a border wall. Roughly 800,000 federal employees are directly affected by the shutdown. We checked in with a few of them today.
BETHANY MOHER: My name is Bethany Moher (ph), and I live in Leadville, Colo. My husband is a federal employee with the Department of Energy. He's still an essential employee, so we're still not sure he'll be getting paid next week. We're actually looking at whether or not we're going to be able to pay our mortgage. We do have three small children, so it makes it really difficult for us.
LORI OTT: My name is Lori Ott (ph). I live in Lyman, Wyo. I work for the IRS, and the way this will affect me personally - I have good credit and some savings. So we'll live on that. And we won't miss a paycheck until the 31, and then hopefully it won't last too much longer than that. But I think we'll be OK. I'm an auditor, so it'll just mean a delay in audits.
HEATH JEPSON: My name's Heath Jepson (ph). We live here in Sedalia, Mo. I work for the DOD. My wife works for the USDA. She's a food inspector. She has to go to work but isn't getting paid. We fully support the border wall. However, this shutdown is at a really bad time. It has cut our income in half.
PAUL NEIL KEIFFER JR: My name is Paul Neil Keiffer Jr (ph). I live in Austin, Texas. I am an employee of the Internal Revenue Service. I work at the service center here. I'm not considered essential. It means I have to worry about my rent and my electricity. I am definitely worried. I'm worried about whether or not I can make my next meal after a certain period of time. So I definitely would appreciate it if the boys up in Washington would get their act together and get this straightened out.
SHAPIRO: Those are some of the voices of federal employees and their spouses affected by the partial government shutdown. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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