WASHINGTON, DC -- In an effort to enhance public safety and deter violence targeted towards specific religious communities, U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse joined a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators in urging Senate Appropriations Committee leaders to provide $500 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) in 2026.

NSGP funds are administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and competitively awarded to applicants to help non-profits and faith-based entities enhance their security infrastructure, training, and systems.  The federal NSGP funds can be used for things such as purchasing and installing locks, video cameras, and bulletproof glass, or hiring off-duty police officers as security personnel.

Reed and Whitehouse say that NSGP funds have become a critical security tool for churches, synagogues, and temples in Rhode Island to guard against targeted hate crimes and antisemitism.

Following the murder of two Israeli Embassy employees outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, Reed and Whitehouse joined with 31 of their Senate colleagues in sending a letter asking appropriators to significantly boost NSGP funding from $274.5 million last year to $500 million in fiscal year 2026 to help ensure the safety and security of Jewish institutions and other vulnerable non-profits and houses of worship nationwide.

“The threat of violence is unfortunately increasing at places of worship across our country at alarming rates,” the 33 U.S. Senators wrote. “There has been an increase in hoax bomb and active shooter threats against houses of worship to interrupt services and intimidate the worshipers. There has also been an increase in antisemitic and anti-Muslim incidents across the country following the October 7 attack in Israel.”

The Trump administration had proposed cuts to non-emergency grant programs at DHS. 

The letter also notes that last year, only 43 percent of grant applications were approved, even with additional funding available through the national security supplemental bill.  Nationwide, applicants requested a total of nearly $1 billion in funding.

“Unfortunately, it is easy to see that the need for the NSGP is quickly outpacing the funding,” the letter notes.

Citing the February 2024 arson attack on Shiloh Gospel Temple, a predominantly Black church in North Providence, the 33 U.S. Senators wrote:“Today’s threat environment provides a compelling public interest in preventing attacks that would disrupt the vital health, human, social, cultural, religious, and other humanitarian services provided by at-risk faith-based and nonprofit institutions.  Such threats terrorize the lives and well-being of millions of Americans who operate, utilize, live, and work in their communities.”

In addition to Reed and Whitehouse, the bipartisan letter was signed by U.S. Senators James Lankford (R-OK), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Gary Peters (D-MI) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV), joined by Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Mark Warner (D-VA), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Adam Schiff (D-CA), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Angus King (I-ME), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Tina Smith (D-MN), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Ed Markey (D-MA).

Full text of the letter follows:

Dear Chair Collins, Vice Chair Murray, Chair Britt, and Ranking Member Murphy:

Thank you for your strong support for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP).

As you draft the Fiscal Year 2026 (FY2026) Homeland Security (HLS) Appropriations bill, we respectfully request that you provide $500,000,000 in funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program under section 2009 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 609a), of which $250,000,000 is for eligible recipients located in high-risk urban areas that receive funding under section 2003 of such Act and $250,000,000 is for eligible recipients that are located outside such areas. 

Together, these programs provide critical security resources to at-risk faith- based and nonprofit institutions located in urban, suburban, and rural communities. In addition to ensuring that the NSGP is funded at robust levels, we also urge the committee to advocate for and maintain separate line items for this program. The NSGP is used by nonprofit organizations, including houses of worship and other faith-based organizations, at risk of terrorist attacks to provide funding for physical security enhancements as well as emergency preparedness training.

The NSGP also works to enhance the engagement and cooperation between community groups, state and; local homeland security organizations, and emergency management agencies to be better; prepared for, prevent, and respond to acts of terrorism. This preparation and investment is critical to our national security and part of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) comprehensive measures to strengthen the safety of our communities. DHS recognizes the risk of extremist-motivated violence as a danger to national security and has warned that violence against nonprofits and faith-based institutions is likely to continue.

The threat of violence is unfortunately increasing at places of worship across our country at alarming rates. There has been an increase in hoax bomb and active shooter threats against houses of worship to interrupt services and intimidate the worshipers. There has also been an increase in antisemitic and anti-Muslim incidents across the country following the October 7 attack in Israel. In the year since October 7, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) recorded over 10,000 antisemitic incidents in the United States, an over 200 percent increase over the year before and the highest number recorded in a single year since ADL started tracking antisemitic incidents in 1979.

Nationwide, there have been countless acts of violence against religious communities, including these specific incidents that underscore the importance and complexity of protecting our religious communities from violence and extremism:

  • On January 3, 2024, a Newark, New Jersey, an Imam was shot and killed outside of his mosque.
  • On January 30, 2024, a man opened fire at a San Francisco Catholic Church.
  • On February 11, 2024, a man set fire to Shiloh Gospel Temple, a predominantly Black church in North Providence, Rhode Island.
  • On February 11, 2024, a woman forced her way inside a Texas Christian megachurch and opened fire.
  • On February 17, 2024, police in Broward County, Florida, arrested a man for beating a 69-year-old Rabbi who was walking home from synagogue on Shabbat.
  • On April 9, 2024, an Idaho teenager was arrested the day before his planned violent attack on local churches.
  • On May 25, 2024, a man was struck in a hit and run in front of a mosque in; Minnesota.
  • On July 22, 2024, St. Leo’s Church in Hartford, Arkansas, was vandalized, and racial slurs were graffitied on the building.
  • On August 12, 2024, a young man was stabbed near a synagogue in New York City.
  • On December 17 and 18, over 400 Jewish Institutions across the country were targeted with false bomb threats and swatting calls.

These events highlight the ever-increasing need for the NSGP. Unfortunately, it is easy to see that the need for the NSGP is quickly outpacing the funding. In Fiscal Year 2024 (FY2024), FEMA received 7,584 grant applications for the NSGP, over 2,300 more than the previous year. These applicants requested $978 million in federal funding, while NSGP received $274.5 million in annual FY24 appropriations. Even with the additional NSGP funding provided by the National Security Supplemental Act for FY2024, FEMA could only fund 43 percent of all grant applicants. This left most of the applicants without the funding they needed to provide security to their at-risk institution.

Today’s threat environment provides a compelling public interest in preventing attacks that; would disrupt the vital health, human, social, cultural, religious, and other humanitarian services provided by at-risk faith-based and nonprofit institutions. Such threats terrorize the lives and well-being of millions of Americans who operate, utilize, live, and work in their communities. Accordingly, we respectfully urge you to strengthen the NSGP by properly funding the program at $500 million in FY2026, and we remain sincerely grateful for your past support of this critical program. Thank you for your consideration of our request.

Sincerely,