‘I don’t know how I’m going to feed my kids’: Shutdown hits federal contractors hard

New York (CNN) — Audrey Murray is losing sleep over the government shutdown that could soon derail her paychecks.

Murray, 65, has worked as a cleaner at the Smithsonian Museum of American History for nearly three decades. Now she is among the hundreds of thousands of federal government contractors whose livelihoods are being threatened by the political dysfunction in Washington, DC.

“It’s so sad that they think they can play with people’s lives,” Murray told CNN while fighting back tears. “Stop this. Stop messing with people. We have families who depend on us.”

Unlike federal employees, contractors typically don’t receive backpay when the government reopens from a shutdown . Low-wage service workers, including cleaners, janitors, security guards, cafeteria workers and other staffe