For 10 months, microbiologist Stephanie Rogers has watched layoffs and early retirements erode the workforce at her federal lab in Lakewood as it screens samples for foodborne diseases.

Now, in the second week of the latest federal government shutdown , she worries her job will be next if White House threats of mass layoffs or the withholding of back pay materialize. And then there’s the worry that the furlough itself, with no end in sight, will eat too deeply into her ability to provide for her family in the immediate future.

“It’s painful,” said Rogers, a 44-year-old mother of two who lives in Highlands Ranch and has worked at the lab for 16 years. “It’s painful that this was my dream job. I’ve given my career, and most of my working life, to this job. I’ve raised children, who are

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