Nellie Pou

Rep. Nellie Pou announced on Feb. 6 that she was proud to win $14.4 million for community projects for 15 towns within her North Jersey congressional district, including $3.2 million for a homeless hub in Paterson.

What Pou’s press release didn’t say was that in the final congressional roll call, she voted against the appropriations bill that contained money for those projects.

The reason was simple, Pou’s staff said. In the final version of the spending bill, congressional Republicans had added funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency commonly known as ICE.

The inclusion of the ICE funding almost resulted in the bill’s defeat. In a preliminary vote on Jan. 22 — before the ICE money was added — the House of Representatives overwhelmingly supported the bill, 341-88, with 192 Republicans and 149 Democrats in favor of it.

Story continues below photo gallery.

But the margin in the final vote taken on Feb. 3 was 217-214, with more than 120 Democrats — including Pou — switching from “yea” to “nay.”

With New Jersey’s 9th Congressional District — a longtime Democratic stronghold — now seen as a possible battleground in this year’s midterm elections, Republicans last week were quick to condemn Pou for bragging about funding she voted against.

Meanwhile, Democrats accused the GOP of political sleight of hand for adding ICE money to a pork-barrel bill that listed more than 2,400 projects around the country.

“She is not the first member of Congress who touted funding that they actually voted against,” said Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University.

By issuing the press release three days after her “nay” vote, Pou joined a long list of political figures who Rasmussen said “wanted to have their cake and eat it, too.”

“Her explanation about the ICE funding may be something the voters in her district are comfortable with,” Rasmussen said.

'Vote no but take the dough'

For many years, New Jersey’s 9th District was seen as “safe” for Democrats, Rasmussen said. But Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris in the 9th District in 2024, and Pou prevailed in a surprisingly close race against Republican Billy Prempeh.

“Now the 9th District is going to be on Republicans’ radar” in 2026, Rasmussen said.

National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Maureen O’Toole called Pou “out of touch,” saying she “thinks she can vote no but take the dough.”

“Voters see right through her act, and they’ll hold her accountable for trying to block millions in critical funding all in a callous and dangerous effort to defund federal law enforcement,” O’Toole added, noting that the 14 North Jersey projects would not have gotten money without GOP votes.

Pou spokesman Mark Greenbaum said the congresswoman was proud of her efforts to get funding for her district.

“Not conjured out of thin air or by a magic trick, Nellie fought hard to advance federal funding for these local investments along with our senators,” Greenbaum said.

“What Nellie refused to support was Republicans’ shameful move to tie funding for these projects to their extreme efforts to give more money to Trump and Kristi Noem’s reckless and out-of-control ICE,” Greenbaum said.