U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09) today praised the FY2023 spending bill released by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security which includes the full $360,000,000 for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) long sought by Pascrell and his colleagues to protect houses of worship from rising domestic extremism threats.

In May, Reps. Pascrell and Mike McCaul (R-TX-10) announced they led 161 House colleagues requesting a significant increase in NSGP funding for Fiscal Year 2023. In a letter to the leaders of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, the members officially requested that the NSGP program be funded at $360 million, to be split evenly among the NSGP’s Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) and State Homeland Security Grant Program (SHSGP).

“We have demanded this funding for a long time, so I am delighted it is included in this spending bill. The United States faces a dangerous spike in domestic extremism that threatens every community in the country. As we saw in Colleyville, Texas, much of that extremism tragically is aimed squarely at synagogues and other houses of worship,” said Rep. Pascrell. “Many Americans do not know that our faith-based communities typically do not often have enough resources to provide security to their members. Government must protect people who want to practice their faith without threat of a bomb or a gunman. If one synagogue or one church or one mosque is not safe, then no churches, mosques, or temples anywhere in America are fully safe. I will work hard to see this funding is passed by the House and becomes the law of the land.”

On February 23, Pascrell joined local community leaders in Passaic, New Jersey to stress the importance of Congress increasing NSGP funding to protect local synagogues and other houses of worship in North Jersey and across America.

Rep. Pascrell regularly leads the fight to increase NSGP funding in the House and works around the clock to obtain needed anti-terror grants for New Jersey. He helped secure more than $9.5 million in Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding for New Jersey in July 2020, including $1.08 million for community centers in the Ninth Congressional District.

In 2020, Rep. Pascrell helped to advance legislation to authorize the Nonprofit Security Grant Programs. While the NSGP was previously funded through annual appropriations, the program had never been officially authorized. The Securing American Nonprofit Organizations Against Terrorism Act (H.R.2476) was signed into law later that year.