Lawmakers call to unfreeze security funding for religious institutions

(JTA) — Nearly 80 members of Congress from both parties are calling for the Trump administration to end a freeze on security funding for religious institutions.

The halt to the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, or NSGP, began recently as part of an overall funding freeze on FEMA, the federal disaster relief agency. Synagogues, schools and Jewish community centers have long relied on the funding, which goes to religious institutions of all kinds, to pay for measures like security cameras or bollards to protect their buildings.

“At a time when hate and violence against faith-based communities ac...