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Local family explains hardships government shutdown caused

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Families of thousands of federal employees have waited for more than a month for a paycheck.

They are about the have some temporary relief.

President Donald Trump and Democrats agreed to reopen the government for three weeks without funding for border security.

[READ MORE: Government shutdown: Senate unanimously approves bill to reopen government]

After 35 days, the government shutdown affected hundreds of thousands of workers.

Unless there is an agreement on Feb. 15, the shutdown could be back on.

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The president said paychecks will be coming soon to federal employees who have been working without pay.

Locally, the impact has affected hundreds of local families hard.

TSA agents at Charlotte Douglas Airport were forced to work without pay, while state parks were also impacted.

A local family told Channel 9 they had to consider how they were going to pay for medicines and the children’s birthday parties.

A woman, whose husband is a TSA worker, couldn’t hold back tears when she learned her husband was going to get paid.

The woman who didn’t want to be identified said the shutdown has been extremely difficult.

She wanted to speak to Channel 9 to bring attention to how the government shutdown has affected people.

The woman said they have had to ration medicine, carefully choose what they would spend gas money on and they couldn't throw her son a birthday party.

She said she’s thankful for people who have pitched in to help government workers in this dire time of need.

“Tears of joy, and when I saw it break, I was so thankful and I was so happy because we’ve been praying,” she said. “There were co-workers that were getting ready to be evicted. There were ones that couldn’t get food. There were ones that couldn’t make it to work. I’m so grateful and I’m so thankful.”

The woman said she is still scared that the reopening of the government is not a permanent solution, but she's hopeful lawmakers will be able to keep the government running after three weeks from now.

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