“I reached out to them after we made a payment in December,” Rajah said. “If it wasn’t for them saying we will work with you, my daughter would be sitting at home right now.”

Hanover County resident Cassie Mergy, who asked that her maiden name be used, said her family has had to dip into savings to pay work-related expenses that her husband, a federal air marshal, is accumulating as an essential employee.

The job automatically covers the marshal’s flights, but the marshals pay for hotels and food with a credit card issued in their names when they travel. Usually they are reimbursed within about 24 hours, she said. The job requires them to keep the credit card payments current or face discipline.

“We just paid a few thousand dollars a few weeks ago. I pulled that money out of our savings account,” she said. “By the grace of God we have been working hard in the past couple of years to build up our savings.”

Scott Riley, 29, was supposed to start a job with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Jan. 7 but got an email saying he wouldn’t be able to start until the agency reopens. His last job was at a fish farming operation in Sierra Leone in West Africa.