The Federal Triangle metro station in Washington, DC, on October 2. President Donald Trump is weighing slashing "thousands" of federal jobs ahead of a meeting with his budget director, Russell Vought, as the White House looks to ratchet up pressure on Democrats to end a government shutdown that has entered its second day. Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg/Getty Images New York —

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 wi

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