“The lack of funding is impacting agents’ ability to travel to forward their cases,” said Thomas O’Connor, president of the FBI Agents Association. “As we go forward, those funds are not going to be available and in some cases are not available now.”

Senior law enforcement officials are increasingly concerned that the anger among the rank and file is growing exponentially and could skyrocket next week if a second straight paycheck is skipped. Those who are charged with protecting the nation from criminals and terrorists could be facing enormous external financial stressors as they try to stay focused on their work.

“This isn’t PlayStation, this is people’s lives we’re talking about,” said one law enforcement official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the shutdown. “It’s awful.”