WASHINGTON – Republican Reps. Chris Jacobs and Tom Reed sided with Democrats Saturday on a bill to give the troubled U.S. Postal Service an extra $25 billion to support its operations – but then Jacobs accidentally voted against the measure.
The 257-150 vote on the Democrat-backed bill fell largely along partisan lines, but 26 Republicans – including upstate Reps. John Katko and Elise Stefanik – voted with the Democrats.
But for Jacobs, in his second month as a member of Congress, his highest-profile vote ended up being his most embarrassing.
As the House was voting on the measure, he told The News: "I think it's just very important, especially during these uncertain times, for our citizens to have faith in our fundamental institutions, and I think the post office is certainly one of those fundamental institutions. I just think it's important to send the message that I'm going to do whatever is needed to assure that there's a reliable and dependable postal service in our country."
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Jacobs' office also sent out a statement saying the same thing, but a short time later, Jacobs called a News reporter to acknowledge he voted no by accident.
"I don't know what happened," Jacobs said. Noting that he might have been distracted during the vote, he added: "I must've hit the wrong button."
Reed, who voted yes without incident, agreed with Jacobs' sentiments in favor of the bill, which also blocks President Trump's postmaster general from implementing changes that have delayed delivery and that could hamper mail-in voting in the November election.
"I believe a healthy, functioning post office is critical to our nation’s well-being,” said Reed, who recently sent a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to ask about the delays. “With more federal support and additional coordination with Postmaster General DeJoy, the issues delaying mail, medication and bill deliveries can be addressed immediately."
Both Jacobs and Reed said their offices have received numerous complaints about delayed mail. Their concerns prompted them to break from President Trump, even though Trump did robocalls for Jacobs' election and Reed is co-chair of Trump's re-election campaign in New York.
Trump lashed out against the legislation on Twitter.
"Representatives of the Post Office have repeatedly stated that they DO NOT NEED MONEY, and will not make changes," Trump said. "This is all another HOAX by the Democrats to give 25 Billion unneeded dollars for political purposes, without talking about the Universal Mail-In Ballot Scam."
The vote on the measure follows by nine days Trump's admission that he did not want to provide the extra money the Postal Service Board of Governors requested because he doesn't want it used to facilitate voting by mail.
"Now they need that money in order to make the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots ... But if they don’t get those two items that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting,” Trump said on the Fox Business network on Aug. 13.
Trump has repeatedly said, without evidence, that mail-in voting is rife with fraud. Expecting a surge of mail-in voting because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Democrats insist upon giving the Postal Service more money and stopping the changes that DeJoy is implementing.
Rep. Brian Higgins, a Buffalo Democrat, took to the House floor to rage against what he called "the destructive acts of the president and his postmaster disaster."
And in an interview afterwards, he said his office was inundated with hundreds of calls of complaints from Buffalo-area residents whose mail has been delayed. Hundreds of veterans are not promptly getting their prescriptions, while Social Security checks and business mail are being slowed, too, he said.
"All of this is being jeopardized by a president who has acknowledged he is sabotaging the United States Postal Service because he can't win an election fairly or honestly," Higgins said.
Many Republicans insisted, though, that there was no need for the bill, and no evidence that DeJoy – a major Republican donor before his appointment as postmaster general – wanted to hamper the mail-in vote.
"Like the Russia hoax and impeachment sham, the Democrats have manufactured another scandal for political purposes,” said Rep. James Comer of Kentucky.
Rep. Tom Cole, a Republican from Oklahoma, dismissed the Democratic measure as "a joke," noting that the Republican-controlled Senate will never take up the bill.
For his part, Higgins marveled at Republicans who opposed the measure even though many of them represent rural districts where mail delivery is especially important.
"Trump has a spell on these folks," Higgins said. "They seem to follow him regardless of the consequences."
