While touting successes in increasing funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program in the national security supplemental bill, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Wednesday that “we still have a lot more to do” to ensure that all synagogues and institutions in need of protection can receive help.

“The number of applicants for funding has always been high. It’s increased dramatically, of course, after Oct. 7,” Schumer said during a briefing on NSGP and Jewish community security organized by Jewish groups on Capitol Hill. “I’ll continue to work with law enforcement and groups like [those] that are exemplified in this room … to fight back against the forces of antisemitism.” 

He vowed that “as long as I’m majority leader, I will keep fighting to continue to increase the funding and availability of NSGP to our synagogues and Jewish institutions.”

The program, despite the additional injection of funding from the supplemental bill, funded fewer than half of all requests in the 2024 grant cycle, in light of a significant increase in application volume.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), who leads the Senate Appropriations subcommittee responsible for NSGP funding, said he’s seen in his state the “devastatingly high level” of threat to the Jewish community since Oct. 7.

Murphy offered his “unconditional support for continuing to do everything that we need to keep  Jewish communities in this country safe,” praising both Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “for making it clear from the beginning that this was going to be a priority,” and for delivering increased funding in the supplemental package.

But Murphy said that “the challenge is holding that increase; the challenge is saying that that’s now the floor, not the ceiling, because we are just barely scratching the surface of the need,” which also extends outside the Jewish community.

“The amount of money, while it’s grown exponentially over a short period of time, doesn’t come anywhere close to meeting that need, and we should meet the need,” Murphy continued.

He said that religious institutions and houses of worship especially should feel safe to those who attend them.

“What has hurt the most since Oct. 7 is sitting in rooms with Jewish families listening to children talk about the impact of watching what happens on our college campuses, not feeling safe in their own communities, of seeing the swastikas and hateful flyers that get sent around quiet communities in Connecticut,” Murphy added, noting the poorly understood psychological impacts of antisemitism.

He also pushed for countering the “root causes” of antisemitism, through legislation such as the Countering Antisemitism Act.

Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC), the chair of the House antisemitism task force, called it “really insufficient” that the House Appropriations Committee approved just $305 million for the NSGP for 2025, despite a call from more than 120 House members for at $385 million.

She also said that she still “cannot get” the Countering Antisemitism Act to the House floor.

But she said that she sees hope in that the current wave of antisemitism is, unlike the Spanish Inquisition, the Russian pogroms or Nazi Germany, not sponsored and backed by the government.

“What I look to today is that our government is trying to combat antisemitism,” she said.

Rep. Gabe Amo (D-RI) highlighted the data showing the shortfall in funding for the NSGP, saying that “we cannot accept a situation where more than half of the applicants are denied the resources they need,” vowing to “try to get every single dollar possible to make sure that we meet the need.”

He also reflected on the fact that he represents one of the oldest synagogues in the United States, which serves as a symbol of the country’s history of religious inclusion.

“I get to represent the bedrock of religious freedom in this country, of Jewish participation in our civic life, as noted by George Washington,” Amo said. “But with that beginning comes a responsibility, and that is why I feel it’s so important to be there in solidarity with members of the Jewish community.”

Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), the co-chair of the Senate antisemitism task force, also promised to continue to work to increase funding for the NSGP in prerecorded remarks.