On Monday, two days before the government shut down, a dozen or so current and former federal workers held a press conference near the Capitol building in Washington, D.C.

And they repeated the same oath they took when they started their jobs.

I, Ashley Wilder Smith, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

They were there protesting against President Trump's threats to use the shutdown as an excuse to

lay off more federal employees. Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

NPR's labor and workplace correspondent, Andrew Shue, has been reporting on federal workers all

year and says many of them mentioned this oath to her when they share concerns about what this

administration is doing. You know, we take an oath to uphold the Constitution. We're not taking an oath to anyone president.

We're here to serve all the American people.

It's been a tough year for federal employees.

First, there was that fork in the road email buyout offer.

And then tens of thousands of probationary federal employees were fired.

And then more mass layoffs, funding cuts for projects and programs

President Trump didn't support. And now Trump is telling Democrats, the shutdown is an unprecedented

opportunity to carry out even more layoffs of federal employees. As a federal worker, I am here

to tell you that every awful thing that would happen in a shutdown,

shuddering programs that Americans rely on, damaging our economy, firing federal workers,

all of this is already happening.

That's Jenna Norton currently furloughed.

She works at the National Institutes of Health, where she oversees research into kidney disease.

Andrea says it's hard to get federal employees to talk to her right now, especially on the record,

but it is important for her to always try.

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