Dear Nonprofit Security Friends,
The Senate Appropriations Committee postponed its markup of the FY 2026 Homeland Security Appropriations Act, initially scheduled to take place today, on the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC.
In the wake of 9/11, on November 30, 2001, I drafted a letter to the Senate Government Affairs Committee on behalf of United Jewish Communities (today, the Jewish Federations of North America). The letter thanked the Committee and its leadership for holding a December 11th hearing to convene mayors, county officials, and front-line emergency responders to share their important perspectives on directing and coordinating federal resources and expertise to local communities to counter terrorism.
In this letter, and a subsequent statement for the hearing record, we shared how the organized Jewish community mobilized relief efforts to respond to the profound needs of the victims, families and afflicted communities of 9/11 — from providing cash assistance to victims and their immediate families (to cover mortgages, rents, utility bills, bereavement and related travel expenses); to crisis counseling; mental health services; temporary housing and relocation; long-term rehabilitation; day care and more.
We also conveyed the Jewish community’s acute awareness that our own institutions were (and remain today) particularly vulnerable to future terrorist threats in this country by virtue of our Jewish affiliation. Both the rhetoric of those responsible for September 11’s attacks and past experience supported this view. (And the record over the intervening years from threats perpetrated from across the ideological spectrum no less perpetuate our collective concerns.)
Throughout the country, Jewish houses of worship, schools, hospitals, community centers, human services agencies, summer camps, college campus organizations, and other institutions have spent hundreds of millions of dollars beefing up their security, and the expenses are recurring, as improvements and investments made require replacing over time. This is true for many other faith-based and communal groups that, too, are at risk.
We called attention to the immense costs to meet our collective security needs. We urged that government assistance for the nonprofit sector must be a part of the nation’s counterterrorism response to 9/11 (and the superseding threats that have since followed), to ensure that the costs for providing security do not come at the expense of the essential programs and services they provide or interfere with their respective missions, ideologies, and beliefs.
We urged the Committee on Government Affairs to include our concerns within the scope of the December 11th hearing. Through ceaseless advocacy for this cause, Congress delivered in creating the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) on October 18, 2004, with initial funding of $25 million.
On the anniversary of 9/11 in 2019, the Committee on Government Affairs (since renamed the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs), held a field hearing in New York City to benchmark the state of Homeland Security 18 years after 9/11. (See Transcript S. Hrg. 116–397)
The witnesses included past Homeland Security Secretaries Michael Chertoff (served 2005-2009), Janet Napolitano (served 2009-2013), and Jeh Johnson (served 2013-2017).
I note that during Michael Chertoff’s tenure, a mass shooting attack on the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle took place on July 28, 2006. Six women were shot, one who was pregnant and one who died of her wounds.
I also note that during Janet Napolitano’s tenure, a mass shooting attack took place at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, WI, on August 5, 2012. Five men and one woman inside the temple perished.
Furthermore, during Jeh Johnson’s tenure, a mass shooting attack at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church took place in Charleston, SC, on June 17, 2015. Six women and three men were mortally wounded.
During the hearing, Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) recognized the threats to houses or worship in her state and nationally, the importance of the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, and the exceeding demand for the program’s limited resources. She then asked each of the former Secretaries to share their “thoughts about how the Congress, the Department and the entire Federal Government can work to keep soft targets like houses of worship safe from threats.”
Micheal Chertoff’s response recognized the challenges in balancing the openness of house of worship, schools, and other establishments and the need for security. He agreed that the grants help, especially around holidays, and found benefit in the ability to use program resources for contracted security. He also commended the program for its support for training, such as active shooter response, and overall risk mitigation to respond to the difficult task of prevention.
Janet Napoletano’s response concurred with Chertoff’s statement. She testified that “The grant program helps, active shooter training helps, additional local law enforcement resources during particular holiday periods may help. And it really requires using a menu of approaches,” to mitigate the risks.
Jeh Johnson, also agreed with these assessments, and went on to argue that the program requires greater funding to enhance awareness and increase participation to ensure the program is known and available to, “the full spectrum of organizations that it was intended to help.”
Since this field hearing, Congress has responded (propelled in large part, in my view, by the October 27, 2018, massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA).
Between FY 2005 and FY 2018, Congress appropriated $19 million, annually, for the program (amounting in the aggregate to approximately $266 million in total). The program eligibility was restricted to only several dozen urban areas and authorized annually through an appropriation’s “gimmick”.
Since the hearing, between FY 2019 and FY 2025, Congress has increased NSGP program funding to about $260 million, annually. This amounts in the aggregate to a total of more than $1.8 billion. Congress further codified the program in statute that included expanded program eligibility throughout the country and the incorporation of improvements in outreach and assistance for greater participation. The program has grown from a few hundred awards to a few thousand awards for each grant cycle.
On this solemn occasion, when we remember loved ones, friends, responders and strangers lost or injured on (or as a consequence of) 9/11, I want to thank the Members of the House and Senate who have and remain dedicated to the NSGP program, the leaders and rank and file staff at the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency who administer the program, the state and local officials who work closely for and with the nonprofit sub-recipients to carry out the program, and the communal advocates who steadfastly work to maintain, expand, and protect the program to ensure it continuity and ability to serve at risk nonprofit as the threats remain and are elevated.
Best,
Rob Goldberg
Principal
Goldberg & Associates, LLC
In partnership with Sphere State