WASHINGTON, DC – Following another violent attack on the Jewish community, U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) helped lead a bipartisan letter with Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Gary Peters (D-MI), Rob Portman (R-OH), and James Lankford (R-OK) to the Senate Appropriations Committee requesting that the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) be adequately funded to meet the needs of at-risk organizations this fiscal year.
The funding allocated by this program will support nonprofit organizations most at risk through the acquisition and installation of physical target hardening measures, related preparedness and prevention planning, training, and exercises, and contracted security personnel so that religious and community-based organizations have the critical resources and tools they need to protect lives and property, and worship without fear. According to FBI data, among all victims of anti-religious hate crimes in 2019, 60.2 percent were victims of crimes motivated by offenders’ anti-Jewish bias.
“This weekend, another attack occurred on a faith-based institution, in what the FBI is calling a ‘terrorism-related’ matter, in which the Jewish community was targeted. This attack underscores how extremists pose a threat to the Jewish community and to other religious, racial, and ethnic groups,” wrote the Senators. “Congress established NSGP to support the physical security and security activities of at-risk faith-based and other nonprofit organizations, who cannot shoulder alone the investments they require to deter, detect and prevent violent extremist attacks from happening in their communities. For this reason, and in recognition of the increased threat environment under which these organizations must navigate, we respectfully encourage you to appropriately fund NSGP in FY 2022. Congress should do all that it can to protect at-risk and vulnerable nonprofits from today’s increasing extremist and hate-motivated threats.”
The Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) helps nonprofits deemed by the Department of Homeland Security to be at risk of attack plan for and ready themselves against potential attacks. In addition to hardening facilities, this program has improved efforts to keep at-risk nonprofit organizations safe by promoting emergency preparedness coordination and collaboration activities between public and private community representatives, as well as with state and local government agencies.
Read the full text of the letter here.
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