A contracted federal worker and single mother has turned to the generosity of strangers to help her cover the rent and keep her family’s lights on as the ongoing government shutdown deprives her of a paycheck.
Julie Burr, who recently launched a GoFundMe fundraising page to help pay the bills, is among the hundreds of thousands of federal employees whose jobs have been impacted by the partial shutdown, which, as it stretches into its third week, has no end in sight.
As a contracted employee, Burr, who works for the Department of Transportation in Kansas City, Missouri, will likely not get retroactive pay. She said she’s taken on extra shifts at a second job but that it hasn’t been sufficient to cover her rent and utility bills.
Desperate and with her savings depleted, Burr said she turned to GoFundMe to help make ends meet.
“Being a single mom, I’m in panic mode right now,” she wrote on the fundraising site.
Speaking to CNN on Monday, Burr was asked about President Donald Trump’s recent assertion that he “can relate” to government employees who can’t pay their bills.
“I find it hard to believe that a billionaire could relate to anyone who lives possibly paycheck to paycheck, which many of the American people do,” she said.
Trump has threatened to continue the partial government shutdown for “months or even years” if he doesn’t get the funding needed to construct his long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall.
The president is scheduled to address the ongoing impasse in a prime-time speech on Tuesday. The White House said Trump will travel to the southern border later this week.
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