Dear Nonprofit Security Friends,
We are in week 3 of the partial federal government shutdown.
On the eve of the government closure, Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Gary Peters (D-MI), James Lankford (R-OK), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Risk Scott (R-FL), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), reintroduced bipartisan legislation to improve security for houses of worship (and nonprofits generally).
While FY 2026 spending decisions are in limbo, this time could be well served by organizations and individuals representing faith-based communities and the nonprofit sector in building congressional support for the new security legislation.
The following are legislative history, details, and recommended action steps in support of S.2947, Pray Safe Act of 2025.
I. Pray Safe Act History
Faith-based and nonprofit security has historically received bipartisan support from Members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC). This support continues with the reintroduction of S. 2947 three weeks ago.
The bill was first introduced during the 117th Congress (2021-2022), then reintroduced in the 118th Congress (2023-2024), and again in the current 119th Congress (2025-2026).
For many years, then-Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), who was a long-time Member of the HSGAC (and in his final year its chairman), was the leading Senate Republican supporter of the Nonprofit Security Grant Program.
In the 117th Congress, Portman and Hassan were the original cosponsors of the first Pray Safe Act (S. 2123). Senators Peters, Johnson, and Rosen also signed onto the bill once introduced. Senator Mark Kelly first cosponsored the bill when it was introduced in the 118th Congress. [Note: Then-Senator, now Vice President, J.D. Vance (R-OH), also came onto the bill in the 118th Congress.] Senators Scott and Slotkin came on board this year for the first time.
Portman was a big proponent of harnessing the federal government’s available and existing resources to promote faith-based and nonprofit security in addition/alternative/counterbalance to funding the NSGP program, whose annual funding requests were increasing exponentially.
Around the same time that S. 2123 was being considered in the Senate during the 117th Congress, Representative Bennie Thompson (then-Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and now its Ranking Member) introduced a reauthorization bill (H.R. 6825, “Nonprofit Security Grant Program Improvement Act of 2022) that I helped draft, to increase funding authorization and strengthen the administrative effectiveness of the NSGP program.
I was actively engaged in the promotion of both bills (often acting in an intermediary capacity with both Portman and Thompson’s committee staff to secure interparty and bicameral support to advance these bills. [Note: Frankly, my first priority was to effectuate the improvements to the NSGP program through the passage of H.R. 6825, and that required helping Portman with S. 2123.]
Many of the provisions to H.R. 6825 became law within H.R. 7776, James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023.
While Senator Portman retired after the 117th Congress, his bill has been reintroduced for good reason. NSGP is a bedrock program for federally supported physical/infrastructure nonprofit security enhancements and protections. It is, however, not a monolith. The Pray Safe Act, as detailed below, is intended as a means to identify, centralize, and make accessible information and resources gathered from across the federal government to help faith-based and nonprofit organizations protect themselves from terrorist and terroristic threats.
It has the ethos of practicality, efficiency, and good stewardship of existing resources to multiply the federal response to the elevated risks to faith-based and nonprofit organizations, and, presently, at a time when the administration of the NSGP program is unreliable and uncertain.
There is also a newly introduced bipartisan House companion bill, H.R.5645, sponsored by Representative Grace Meng (D-NY), with original co-sponsors Maria Elvira Salazar ([R-FL), Daniel Goldman(D-NY), Max Miller (R-OH), Dave Min (D-CA), Michael Lawler (R-NY), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Don Bacon (R-NE), Luis Correa (D-CA), Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA), André Carson (D-IN) and Gus Bilirakis ([R-FL).
The bill language has not yet been published (likely due to the House being out of session along with the shutdown). We can assume the House bill closely tracks the Senate version.
II. Pray Safe Act Details
The purpose of the Pray Safe Act id to establish a Clearinghouse to become the primary resource of the Federal Government to educate and publish online best practices and recommendations for safety and security for nonprofit organizations, including faith-based organizations, and houses of worship; and to provide information relating to Federal grant programs available to nonprofit organizations, including faith-based organizations, and houses of worship.
Presently the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency provides guidance on the NSGP grant program (and is the administering agency of the program), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) provides some resources to Houses of Worship to improve their security and resilience.
However, as set forth in the initial Senate Committee Report in support of the first-introduced Pray Safe Act (S. Rept. 117-81 – PRAY SAFE ACT), the then-Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC) reported in December 2019, that there was a “lack of consistent, clear, and centralized information regarding training, grants, and security best practices for faith-based communities,” and that faith-based organizations and houses of worship do not have a central point of contact at DHS, which harms coordination efforts and increases confusion among faith-based communities.”
I would argue that these concerns are magnified in the present, when the relationships between faith-based and nonprofit, State and local, and congressional nonprofit security stakeholders, and their counterparts within the Executive Branch (including DHS and FEMA) are frayed and dysfunctional.
The Pray Safe Act can help address these frictions (and for long-term benefit) by better connecting stakeholders with resources to protect their communities.
It will establish within DHS an online or web-based Federal Clearinghouse on Safety and Security Best Practices for Nonprofit Organizations, Faith-based Organizations, and Houses of Worship.
It will assign staff (at least one staff person) to the Clearinghouse who will be the central point/s of contact and will be qualified to provide information and assistance to nonprofit organizations to promote best practices and recommendations (including Federal grant programs and trainings) in comprehensive areas of safety and security, such as preparedness, protection, mitigation, incident response, and recovery to improve resiliency to natural disasters, manmade disasters, or terrorist attacks.
It will proactively collect, analyze, examine, and evaluate data and feedback on best practices and recommendations and make its own proposals for inclusion, and regularly update the Clearinghouse content.
It will coordinate with coordination with the Faith-Based Security Advisory Council of the Department, the Department of Justice, the Executive Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and other agencies as deemed appropriate.
It will keep informed of its establishment and provide updates to every State homeland security advisor and State department of homeland security, other Federal agencies with grant programs or initiatives that aid in the safety and security of nonprofit organizations, every CISA Cyber Security Advisor and Protective Security Advisor, every Federal Bureau of Investigation Joint Terrorism Task Force, every Homeland Security Fusion Center, every State or territorial Governor or other chief executive, and the House and Senate committees on Homeland Security and the Judiciary.
It will provide a central location for information, links to, and application assistance with all Federal grant programs that are open to nonprofit organizations for the purposes of safety and security.
It will be a repository of information provided by States regarding any state-level grant programs or resources available for nonprofit organizations for the purposes of safety and security.
It will maintain a centralized directory of contact information across departments and agencies for nonprofits seeking assistance in grant applications and in carrying out the best practices and recommendations of the Clearinghouse.
And it will require the Comptroller General of the United States (Congresses investigative arm) to compiles a report for Congress on the state of Federal grants devoted to safety and security for nonprofit organizations, and an evaluation of the relevant programs and resources devoted to the safety and security of nonprofit organizations.
[I note that there are no appropriations authorized in the present bill for the cost of implementation and maintenance of the program. However, the report accompanying the initial bill included the following cost estimates: “Using information from DHS about similar programs, CBO [Congressional Budget Office] estimates that implementing the bill would cost about $2 million in 2022 and $1 million each year thereafter, for a total of $6 million over the 2022-2026 period; such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.” It also indicated that the bill “contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.”]
III. Pray Safe Act Advocacy
For professional or seasoned advocates, reaching out to your Senators should be straight forward. I always prefer speaking to or emailing the Washington subject matter expert staff (in this case staff responsible for the homeland security portfolio and/or faith-based/religion portfolio), to discuss the bill and its potential impact on the organization and community. However, during the shutdown, speaking with one of the State/District office directors may be a better option.
For those of you newer to advocacy, some Jewish groups have set up what I call “E-Postcards” to send automated messages to Congress, including The Religious Action Center (RAC) of Reform Judaism.
Their advocacy tool is straightforward to use and includes a substantive (Jewish security centric) message, which can be accessed at: https://www.votervoice.net/URJ/campaigns/97977/respond
The sample message provided can be used as a template and amended for any individual or group use before sending.
The RAC’s sample message:
“As your constituent and a member of the Jewish community, I urge you to support the bipartisan Pray Safe Act (S.2947/H.R.5645).
In recent years, faith communities across the United States have experienced an alarming level of religious bigotry, including violence targeting houses of worship. From 2009 to 2019, the Department of Homeland Security identified 37 incidents of targeted violence at houses of worship – including arsons, bombings, cyberattacks, shootings, stabbings, and vehicular assaults – with a discernable increase after 2015. These attacks are part of a broader pattern of hate. According to the 2022 FBI Hate Crime Statistics, religion-based hate crimes comprised the second-largest category of hate crime incidents, representing more than 17 percent of reported incidents. In their Audit of Antisemitic Incidents in 2022, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) – the world’s leading anti-hate organization – reported 3,697 antisemitic incidents throughout the United States, the highest number recorded since the ADL began tracking such data in 1979.
As these incidents intensify, many houses of worship and religious institutions are assessing and revising their security infrastructure and procedures. These safety improvements are a painful yet necessary reality for houses of worship rooted in a desire to be places of welcome. Congregations and religious communities need more resources and guidance to ensure their communities are safe for all worshippers.
The Pray Safe Act (S.2947/H.R.5645) would direct the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Department of Justice, the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and other federal agencies to create a federal clearinghouse through which faith-based organizations and houses of worship can access information on safety and security best practices, federal grant programs, and training opportunities. This bill will help ensure that religious communities have the proper training and financial resources to improve security and keep worshippers safe.
Guided by Jewish people’s historic experiences of suffering persecution as a religious minority, the Reform Movement has long been committed to protecting religious pluralism and freedom of worship for all faiths. Jewish tradition also emphasizes the sanctity and eternal value of human life, compelling us to ensure that all people can pray without fear of violence. The Talmud teaches, “One who takes a life, it is though they have destroyed the universe. And one who saves a life, it is as though they have saved the universe” (Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5). Amidst rising antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism, xenophobia, and other forms of religious bigotry, we must work to ensure that people of all faiths can worship safely.
For all these reasons, I urge you to support the Pray Safe Act (S.2947/H.R.5645) which would strengthen security resources for houses of worship.”
Another option is for an advocate to go to their respective Senate and House Delegation Members’ official websites and to submit comments (statements of legislative support for the Pray Safe Act (S.2947/H.R.5645)) directly through the Members designated “Contact” pages as instructed.
This bill is important, and your advocacy is necessary and encouraged.
Best,
Rob Goldberg
Principal
Goldberg and Associates, LLC
In partnership with Sphere State