South Florida Democrats are trying to humanize the 800,000 federal workers furloughed by the government shutdown.
Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her colleague, Ted Deutch, joined two HUD workers from Miami who are about to go without their first paychecks since the government closed.
Wasserman Schultz says the employees are being held hostage by the president's ego.She says the House and Senate both agreed to a budget deal and the president was on board too until he was criticized by conservative media.
As a furloughed HUD employee, Denise Benjamin says she already spoke to her bank about skipping her mortgage payment, but she doesn't know how long she can hold out. Her daughter is a furloughed FDA employee living in Washington DC.
About 13,000 of the 800,000 furloughed workers live in Florida.