JFNA applauds Homeland Security appropriations

“We applaud the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security for approving $90 million in its draft Department of Homeland Security spending bill for FY 2020, to strengthen security and preparedness at faith-based and other at-risk nonprofit institutions,” said William Daroff of the Jewish Federations of North America, a leading advocate for FEMA’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program and the proposed increase in program funding. “Since September 11th, nonprofits generally, and Jewish communal institutions specifically, have been the victim of an alarming number of threats and attacks.”
 
The proposed $90 million in NSGP funding amounts to a 50% increase above the current level of $60 million.  The additional funding will bolster the ability of nonprofits across the country to counter those threats by providing needed resources for target hardening, and the integration of nonprofit preparedness activities with broader state and local preparedness efforts. 
 
“Half way through 2019 and the first session of the 116th Congress, the degree of reporting is alarming and provides one of the clearest pictures in the NSGP program’s history of the current and foreseeable high level of threat posed to at-risk nonprofits,” Daroff added.  “The threat record comports with the strong bipartisan support in the House and Senate to increase NSGP funding in FY 2020.”
 
Over the past year, the FBI has investigated more than 100 threats to religious institutions.  Moreover, since February of this year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Homeland Security, and National Counter Terrorism Center have released no less than six Joint Intelligence Bulletins (JIBs) that assess domestic actors will continue to pose a lethal threat to faith-based communities in the Homeland, and of particular concern are mass casualty attacks at large gatherings and soft targets. 
 
The Jewish Federations has played a critical part in advancing the Nonprofit Security Grant Program since its inception in 2004.

Learn more about JFNA's work in Washington, D.C.