Citing several recent attacks on religious institutions, including synagogues, Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) wrote on Wednesday to Senate leadership pressing for additional resources to upgrade security.
“Congress can and should ensure that federal resources are timely, accessible and proportional to risk, and that our national security enterprise treats attacks on houses of worship with the seriousness they warrant,” the senators wrote to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
Lankford and Rosen, co-founders of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, pointed to the Jan. 10 arson attack at Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Miss., and a September fire at the Chabad of Charlotte County in Punta Gorda, Fla., which is being investigated as arson and a hate crime.
The senators also pointed to a deadly shooting attack on a Mormon congregation in Grand Blanc, Mich., in September and a mass shooting at a Catholic church in Minneapolis in August in their urgent call to action.
“These are only a few examples among many, but they make plain that our faith-based communities remain vulnerable,” the letter reads.
The senators wrote that security assistance for houses of worship, religious nonprofits and faith-based community institutions must be strengthened, including through the popular Nonprofit Security Grant Program.
“Our focus is to continue to increase that funding, because we’ve got to make sure that facilities that can’t afford to be able to add some of the different things that are very expensive, that we are actually trying to be able to step in as a nation and saying this is important to us to make sure that we are protecting these individuals while they worship,” Lankford told JNS.
He said the effort aims to advance funding during the current appropriations cycle and expressed confidence that nonprofit security grants will increase. The next budget cycle begins in March.
The request specifically calls for expanding eligible uses of security funds, streamlining the application process and bolstering information sharing between faith-community security partners and federal law enforcement authorities.
“It’s been interesting, even in my state, in Oklahoma, to be able to work with different synagogues that have been successful in going through the grant process, to make sure they’re talking to other places of worship to say, ‘Here’s how to be able to fill out the paperwork to be able to make sure that you’re successful at the end in getting the grant.’” Lankford said.
Lankford and Rosen are also seeking funding for situational awareness training and emergency action planning, as well as passage of the Pray Safe Act, “which would create a federal database and clearinghouse for security best practices, training materials and grant opportunities for religious nonprofits.” The senators additionally urged increased resources to prosecute violent and property crimes targeting faith communities.
“This package of priorities reflects our shared obligation—rooted in the First Amendment and our national character—to ensure that Americans can pray, learn, celebrate and mourn in safety,” the letter reads.
Lankford told JNS that Democrats ignored antisemitism on its far left fringe, allowing that wing to “become a dominant voice,” adding that he’s determined not to allow what he calls the “new right” to spread “these same anti- Jewish tropes.”
“We’re trying to be able to call it out. And I simply say the new right is quoting an old wrong, and I’m going to make sure that people know that as Republicans, that’s not our basic core value,” Lankford said.
