A bipartisan group of 33 senators — mostly Democrats — sent a letter last week urging Senate Appropriations Committee leaders to provide $500 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program in 2026, matching the record-high request from a group of House members earlier this month.

The letter was sent the day following the murder of two Israeli Embassy employees outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, an attack that led a coalition of Jewish groups to call for increasing funding for the program, which provides synagogues and nonprofits with grants to improve their security, to $1 billion. The funding request in the Senate letter likely would have been finalized prior to the attack.

It’s not clear, at this point, whether lawmakers might seek to revise their requests to come closer to the $1 billion level, or how feasible either request level might be. The Trump administration had proposed cuts to non-emergency grant programs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and has not yet offered a specific proposal for the NSGP. The $500 million request is nearly double the NSGP’s current funding level of $274.5 million.

“The threat of violence is unfortunately increasing at places of worship across our country at alarming rates,” the Senate letter reads. “There has been an increase in hoax bomb and active shooter threats against houses of worship to interrupt services and intimidate the worshipers. There has also been an increase in antisemitic and anti-Muslim incidents across the country following the October 7 attack in Israel.”

The letter outlines a series of attacks on houses of worship across the country, including synagogues, which the signatories said “highlight the ever-increasing need for the NSGP.”

The letter also notes the significant shortfall in funding for the program last year, with just 43% of grant applications being approved, even with additional funding available through the national security supplemental bill. Applicants requested a total of nearly $1 billion in funding.

“Unfortunately, it is easy to see that the need for the NSGP is quickly outpacing the funding,” the letter reads, noting that the deficit “left most of the applicants without the funding they needed to provide security to their at-risk institution.”

“Today’s threat environment provides a compelling public interest in preventing attacks that would disrupt the vital health, human, social, cultural, religious, and other humanitarian services provided by at-risk faith-based and nonprofit institutions,” the letter continues. “Such threats terrorize the lives and well-being of millions of Americans who operate, utilize, live, and work in their communities.”

The letter was led by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), James Lankford (R-OK), Gary Peters (D-MI) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV), joined by Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Mark Warner (D-VA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Adam Schiff (D-CA), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Angus King (I-ME), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Jack Reed (D-RI), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Tina Smith (D-MN), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Ed Markey (D-MA).

Though Lankford and Cramer are the only two Republicans who signed the letter, the bipartisan request marks a change in Senate advocacy on this issue — in the past, bipartisan Senate groups have not specified amounts in their lobbying for the program. Senate Democrats last year called for $400 million for the program.