As government workers across the country figure out ways to pay the bills during the government shutdown, one contract employee says she set up a GoFundMe account to help pay her expenses during the unpaid period.
“I was given the advice to set up a GoFundMe and I made a goal of approximately two months of salary because I wasn’t sure how much this would last,” Julie Burr told CNN’s Brianna Keilar in an interview on Monday. “That’s going to help get us through. It helped with my January rent and more than likely will have to help with February rent also. So right now I’m relying on that.”
Burr, a federal contract worker for the Department of Transportation in Kansas City, Missouri, said she also isn’t expecting to get paid for hours she has already worked. That’s because she can’t submit her time sheet since there is no one to approve it in the office where she works.
“I just want to get back to work. I just want the government to be back up and running and I want to get back to work and earn my paycheck and that’s what I think a lot of people feel like,” she said.
When asked to respond to President Trump saying he “can relate” to government workers who are going without pay, Burr didn’t agree with Trump’s sentiments.
“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 replied.
The federal government has been partially shut down for 16 days.
