JPMorgan Chase, the largest U.S. lender, is committing $1 million to provide meals and other services to government workers who went without pay for more than a month during the U.S. government’s longest shutdown ever.
The money will be contributed to United Way Worldwide and Feeding America, CEO Jamie Dimon told employees in a memo obtained by the Washington Examiner, and the bank will also match individual employee donations and foster volunteer opportunities.
“We’re here to help our customers, whether they’re a government worker, a government contractor or simply an employee at the diner across from a shuttered federal office,” Dimon wrote. The shutdown, which began in late December, continued for more than a month until President Trump agreed Friday to reopen shuttered offices for three weeks while he negotiates with Congress on border security.
The partial closing affected about 800,000 employees, some of whom were required to work without pay, and shaved $1.2 billion a week from U.S. growth. Reviews of new medicines, corporate mergers, and stock offerings were delayed and air travel, particularly in the northeastern U.S., was disrupted.
While Trump conceded the shutdown was painful, he had argued his December refusal to sign any government-funding bill that didn’t include $5.7 billion for a wall he wants to build along the southern U.S. border was necessary to keep the country safe. The wall was a signature promise during the 2016 campaign in which Trump ultimately defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton, one that he had said Mexico would pay for.
Affected government workers will receive their back pay as soon as possible, Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., promised Friday.
But if three weeks of negotiation doesn’t yield “a fair deal from Congress,” the president added that he would either close government offices again or use emergency powers to go around lawmakers.
“Let me be very clear: We really have no choice but to build a powerful wall or steel barrier,” Trump said. “We will have great security.”
JPMorgan’s latest effort to help government workers is part of an industrywide response that includes interest-free loans of up to one month’s pay from Connecticut lender Webster Bank, refunded fees from Wells Fargo and customized assistance from Bank of America, which also pledged $10,000 to an emergency assistance fund at United Way of the National Capital Area.
