Senate Democrats are pushing to keep funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program at its current level in the coming year, according to their proposal for 2022 government funding, which was released on Monday afternoon.

The program — which provides nonprofits and religious groups with funding to enhance their security — received $180 million in 2021. The decision to maintain the current level — which matches the proposal from the House of Representatives — comes even though the program was able to fund less than half of the grant applications received in 2021, and amid a spike in hate crimes over the last year.

Advocates for increased funding — who had largely coalesced around $360 million as the appropriate funding level for 2022 — say they’ll keep pushing for more funding.

“I will continue to work with Senate leadership to ensure that Congress allocates increased and robust resources for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program this year,” Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) told Jewish Insider. “As made clear by the alarming uptick in antisemitic incidents in recent months, there is an urgent need to provide vulnerable Jewish institutions with physical security enhancements.”

A source close to the appropriations process told JI that the funding level could be increased in final negotiations between the House and Senate, but that ensuring the NSGP received funding in both the House and Senate bills was a critical first step.

Rabbi Abba Cohen, Agudath Israel of America’s vice president for government affairs, told JI he “remain[s] optimistic about the program and its funding” and noted that this is far from the first hurdle NSGP advocates have faced.

“Those of us who were engaged in this effort from the start understood that there would be bumps in the road and we surely experienced them early on, as Congress wasn’t fully convinced of the need and urgency of this aid,” Cohen said. “But what’s important is that the mindset has changed — resulting in the recent steady increase of funding — due to the very real threat and danger our community has faced and the violence it has experienced. This reality sadly remains and, with it, strong support for the program and the possibility of greater overall funding.”

Nathan Diament, executive director of the Orthodox Union Action Center, said the OU is hopeful the funding level will increase before the bill is finalized. “The process is far from over,” he noted.

“The demand for NSGP grants rejected in this year’s applications warrants more funding,” Diament added, noting that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) supports increasing funding for the program.

In a statement to JI, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt called on the Senate to bump up its funding while emphasizing that “threats to Jewish and other non-profit organizations are at an all-time high.”

“While ADL appreciates that funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program remains at current levels, we urge the Senate to increase its funding to meet the rising demand,” Greenblatt said. “We are working closely with Congress and the Administration to secure these critical resources.”

Jewish Federations of North America CEO Eric Fingerhut echoed Greenblatt, saying JFNA will also continue advocating for additional NSGP funding, “in light of the frightening and unacceptable increase in violent extremism and antisemitic attacks.”

In the proposed labor, health and human services and education funding bill, also released on Monday, the Senate proposed providing $6 million for the Holocaust Survicor Assistance program, well below the $10 million the House proposed for 2022. JFNA’s senior vice president for public affairs, Elana Broaitman, urged the Senate to pass the House-recommended funding level.

Senate Democrats have included $1 billion in supplemental aid to Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system in their proposed 2022 defense appropriations bill released on Monday afternoon, an alternative path to passing the Iron Dome funding amid stalled efforts to pass it independently.

A House bill providing the supplemental funding has yet to pass the Senate due to an objection from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who wants the bill amended to strip aid from Afghanistan and reallocate some of that aid to Iron Dome. Without Paul’s support — legislators backing the funding had pushed for unanimous consent on the measure — the funding cannot pass quickly through the Senate floor on its own.

A source close to the Senate appropriations committee members told Jewish Insider that the appropriations process is a “backup plan” to efforts to pass the funding on the floor, and does not foreclose the possibility of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) filing cloture on the bill — a process to limit debate and move toward a vote on a measure — to push past Paul’s objection and hold a floor vote. But, the individual said, Democrats believe the appropriations legislation will put further pressure on Republicans to push Paul to lift his hold and allow the funding to pass more quickly.

“If Senator Paul continues blocking swift passage of the Iron Dome supplemental, we will pursue other means, including the appropriations process to get it done,” Schumer explained to JI.

A Senate floor source told JI that Democrats will be “taking the [Republicans’] temperature this week” following this announcement.

“There is broad, bipartisan support to provide immediate funding for Iron Dome, and we are working to ensure that this critical assistance is adopted as soon as possible,” AIPAC spokesperson Marshall Wittmann told JI. “The inclusion of Iron Dome funding in the proposed Senate defense appropriations bill is a strong signal of determination to provide this essential support.”

Neither the cloture path nor the appropriations path would be speedy. Cloture consumes floor time, and Democrats are facing looming deadlines on several high-priority measures including infrastructure, social spending, government funding and the debt ceiling. It’s unclear when or if the defense appropriations bill will come to a vote, given the Senate’s packed schedule for the remainder of the year and Republican opposition to the Democrats’ government funding plans.

Senate Republican leaders indicated Monday that Democrats’ proposed appropriations bills are unlikely to have enough Republican support to pass in their current forms. Should the Senate not reach the 60-vote threshold, Congress would be forced to pass another continuing resolution, holding spending at 2021 levels. In such a scenario, Iron Dome funding would have to be approved separately.

The $1 billion Iron Dome supplement included in the bill is in addition to another $500 million for Israeli missile-defense programs, as provided to Israel annually under the terms of the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding.

Over the weekend, Charles Booker, a progressive Democrat challenging Paul for his Senate seat, blasted Paul’s objections to the Iron Dome funding, accusing him of “playing political games with people’s lives” and “pit[ting] our allies against each other.”

In response Monday afternoon, Paul campaign senior advisor Doug Stafford slammed Booker as “a darling of the antisemitic left” and accused him of “making a false equivalency between the blood-thirsty terrorist regime in Afghanistan and our staunch allies in Israel.”

“Senator Paul supports both the Iron Dome and defunding the Taliban and using those funds to pay for the Iron Dome,” Stafford added.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) condemned British authorities after 2-year-old Alta Fixsler was taken off life support and died Monday, following a protracted legal battle between Fixsler’s parents and the British government.

Fixsler was born with severe brain damage and was on life support for her entire life. A U.K. court approved doctors’ requests earlier this year to take her off life support, despite her Hasidic parents’ religious objections. Her family attempted to relocate her to Israel or the U.S. for continued treatment, but U.K. government officials denied the requests. 

Schumer helped Fixsler secure a U.S. visa last summer and personally pleaded her case to U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson last month.

“I extend my prayers and support for the Fixsler family during this very difficult time. May Alta’s memory be a blessing,” Schumer told Jewish Insider. “I continue to believe the policy followed here was wrong on many levels and regret that our multiple, and legally and morally, well-grounded pleas were unheeded by the British authorities.” 

U.S. politicians including Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Mike Lee (R-UT), Ben Sasse (R-NE), Steve Daines (R-MT), James Lankford (R-OK), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Mike Braun (R-IN), Jim Inhofe (R-OK) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) had also advocated on Fixsler’s behalf.

Fixsler is expected to be buried in Israel, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Senate and House hopefuls and incumbents are filing their Q3 hauls, giving the most in-depth insight to date as to how the races are shaping up ahead of the midterms as states redraw their congressional districts and control of the Senate rests on a handful of key races. Jewish Insider breaks down the numbers from the Federal Elections Commission’s website:

Ohio GOP Senate

Several of the candidates in Ohio’s GOP primary to succeed retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) personally loaned large sums to their campaigns last quarter. Former state party chair Jane Timken, who raised approximately $700,000, loaned herself $1 million, while Bernie Moreno, the Cleveland car dealer who led the field in second-quarter fundraising, also pulled in about $700,000 and gave his campaign $3 million. Cleveland-based investment banker Mike Gibbons raised just over $110,000 but loaned himself $2.25 million. J.D. Vance, the Hillbilly Elegy author and venture capitalist, pulled in $1.75 million, donating $100,000 of his own money. Former Ohio state treasurer Josh Mandel raised approximately $1.1 million. He leads the field in cash on hand, with $5.8 million. Ohio state Sen. Matt Dolan, the only GOP candidate in the field who is not actively courting Trump’s endorsement, did not report fundraising numbers because he entered the race just last month.

Iron Dome Dems

The group of Democrats who led the charge for Iron Dome funding last month saw fundraising performance relatively consistent with the prior quarter. Reps. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Elaine Luria (D-VA), who are expected to face competitive swing district races, hauled in $802,000 and $725,000, respectively. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) pulled in $585,000. Rounding out the group are Reps. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) with $682,000, Brad Schneider (D-IL) with $474,000, Kathy Manning (D-NC) with $351,000, Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) with $315,000, Dean Phillips (D-MN) with $279,000, Ted Deutch (D-FL) with $136,000, Juan Vargas (D-CA) with $94,000 and Kathleen Rice (D-NY) with $73,000.

Josh Gottheimer

As he emerged as the lead negotiator for a group of House moderates who favored swift passage of the Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure bill ahead of a larger social spending package, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) accelerated his already prodigious fundraising, pulling in $1 million in the third quarter. That leaves him with more than $11 million on hand.

Jake Auchincloss

Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), whose profile grew this quarter as an Afghanistan veteran who defended the Biden administration’s Afghanistan pullout, nearly doubled his fundraising this quarter, bringing in $833,000, leaving him with $3.76 million on hand. While Auchincloss’s district is safely Democratic, the freshman — who came out ahead in a crowded field of nine candidates in 2020 — could face a primary challenge from the left.

Marjorie Taylor Greene

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was again a powerhouse fundraiser, bringing in nearly $1.5 million in the third quarter, beating her stunning $1.3 million second-quarter haul, a formidable sum for a member in a safe Republican district. She had more than $3 million on hand at the end of the quarter.

The Squad

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez continued her streak as a star fundraiser, bringing in $1.66 million in the quarter, leaving her with $5.78 million on hand. Rep. Cori Bush’s (D-MO) increased profile during the third quarter, during which she led the push for a renewed eviction moratorium, gave her a boost to double her second-quarter fundraising, pulling in $378,000 in the third quarter. But not all House progressives had equally strong quarters: Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) saw significant dips. Tlaib’s fundraising fell by more than 50%, down to $338,000. Omar raised $286,000, just over half of what she raised in the second quarter.

Liz Cheney

Despite coming under sustained fire from former President Donald Trump and other Republican power players, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) was among the House’s top fundraisers, pulling in $1.37 million.

Stephanie Murphy

Rep. Stephanie Murphy’s (D-FL) fundraising dropped precipitously in the third quarter to $140,000 from $800,000 in the previous quarter, a possible indication she does not intend to run for reelection in 2022. Murphy considered, but ultimately declined to pursue, a run for Florida’s Senate seat in 2022. Murphy, along with Gottheimer, has been another key centrist negotiator in the infrastructure debate.

North Carolina GOP Senate

Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC), a little-known congressman who notched an early endorsement from former President Donald Trump last June that sealed his status as a leading contender in the crowded Republican primary to succeed outgoing Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), has gained considerable ground since last quarter, when he trailed Pat McCrory, the former North Carolina governor, by approximately $250,000. Now, Budd has all but closed the gap, pulling in over $1 million including a personal loan of $25,000. McCrory eked by with just a $3,500 advantage. Still, Budd heads into the final quarter with just over $2 million in cash on hand, more than any candidate in the GOP field. Former Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC) raised just $122,000.

Max Miller

Max Miller, a former Trump aide who was endorsed by the former president in February, raised $695,000 last quarter, the bulk of which came from a $500,000 loan he gave to his campaign. The paucity of outside contributions demonstrates that a nod from Trump by no means guarantees strong fundraising numbers. But Miller is likely in a better position than other Trump-backed candidates now mounting primary challenges against the small group of House incumbents who voted to impeach the former president. Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH) said last month that he would not seek re-election. The announcement, pending a redrawn congressional map, gives Miller a feasible path to victory in Ohio’s deep-red 16th District.

Danny Davis and Kina Collins

Kina Collins, a Justice Democrats-backed gun violence and healthcare activist in Chicago, raised over $100,000 in her bid to unseat 12-term House incumbent Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL), underperforming by nearly $30,000 relative to the previous quarter. Davis, who represents Illinois’s 7 Congressional District, pulled in only $67,000, but has yet to begin actively courting donations 

Jim Cooper and Odessa Kelly

Nashville activist Odessa Kelly, who is also backed by Justice Democrats, raised nearly $110,000 as part of her effort to oust Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN). The Blue Dog Democrat, who represents Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District, pulled in just over $390,000 last quarter.

Carolyn Maloney and Rana Abdelhamid

Rana Abdelhamid, a Google employee and community organizer who is challenging longtime Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) in New York’s 12 Congressional District — and is also running with an endorsement from Justice Democrats — raised almost $213,000 in the previous quarter, bringing her total haul to nearly $625,000. Maloney, for her part, reported nearly $475,000 last quarter. To date, she has raised close to $1.4 million. 

Daniel Webster and Laura Loomer

After swapping districts to run against Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL) in Florida’s 11th Congressional District, Laura Loomer, the far-right conspiracy theorist and anti-Muslim provocateur who unsuccessfully ran against Rep. Lois Frankel (D-FL) last cycle, reported a third-quarter fundraising haul of $106,000. Webster raised just $63,000 but has $313,000 in cash on hand. By contrast, Loomer’s cash on hand is just over $70,000.

Ben Samuels

In his first quarterly report since filing to unseat Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO) in Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District, Democratic candidate Ben Samuels pulled in approximately $640,000. His primary opponent, Missouri state legislator Trish Gunby, raised $130,000. Wagner, for her part, raised $530,000 and is sitting on $1.3 million in cash on hand. 

Daniel Hernandez

Daniel Hernandez, an Arizona state lawmaker who says he wants to be the next pro-Israel progressive in Congress, raised $238,000 last quarter, bringing his total haul to more than $500,000 in the open-seat race to succeed retiring Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ). Kirsten Engel, a former state senator who is also vying to represent Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District, outraised Hernandez by a slim margin, pulling in $265,000. To date, she has raised $600,000. State Rep. Randy Friese had raised the most of any candidate before he pulled out of the race in September. 

Charles Booker, the progressive 2020 Kentucky Senate candidate who is running again in 2022 to challenge Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), slammed the senator for blocking quick passage of additional funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system in a lengthy statement to Jewish Insider.

Booker, who found himself at odds with the Kentucky Jewish community earlier this year over tweets criticizing Israel, expressed strong support for the Iron Dome funding supplement and stridently criticized Paul, who has demanded that the House bill providing $1 billion in supplemental funding to Iron Dome be amended to strip aid from Afghanistan, which he has said could fall into the Taliban’s hands. Paul is the only senator who has objected to passing the House bill.

“In the midst of the ongoing conflict that has cost so many Israeli and Palestinian lives, Rand chose to pit our allies against one another when he made a dishonest, empty excuse to singularly oppose funding for Israel’s ability to defend itself and keep families safe,” Booker  said. “[Paul] opposed funding for the Iron Dome because he likes playing political games with people’s lives no matter the consequences.”

Booker described the additional Iron Dome funding as consistent with his policy priorities.

“While we work to ensure community safety here at home, we have a role to play to that same end with foreign allies,” Booker said. “That includes support to ensure both Israeli and Palestinian people can disarm deadly threats on innocent lives.”

He argued that Paul’s actions are a distraction from important conversations in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and blasted the senator, who has held the seat for a decade, as “dangerously unserious.”

“We cannot ignore the inhumane devastation that has taken place. We cannot look away or dismiss the importance of Israeli and Palestinian self-determination,” Booker said. “That is the conversation we really need to have, but that is not what Rand Paul seeks to do. His actions here should deeply concern us all.”

Sir David Amess, a member of British Parliament who was stabbed to death at a constituency meeting Friday, was known as a strong supporter of Israel and advocate for Holocaust remembrance.

In one of his most notable acts as an MP, Amess, 69, pushed for the funding of a statue in London of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust. Speaking during the House of Commons Holocaust Remembrance debate in January, Amess called the unveiling of the statue outside the Western Marble Arch Synagogue in 1997 by Queen Elizabeth II and Israeli President Ezer Weizman “one of the proudest moments of my life.”

"I would certainly have been proud to have been born a Jew" — MP David Amess in January 2021. Amess was stabbed to death at a constituency meeting earlier today. pic.twitter.com/XWASCSfS9N

— Jewish Insider (@J_Insider) October 15, 2021

“Although I myself am not a Jew but a Catholic, there is Jewish blood in each and every one of us. I would certainly have been proud to have been born a Jew, and I stand shoulder to shoulder with our local Jewish community,” Amess said. “I simply do not understand and have never understood antisemitism. The most important lesson from the holocaust is that although we cannot police the world, it is simply not acceptable to stand by and do and say nothing when genocide happens.”

Amess, who also said he planted a tree at Yad Vashem during a visit to Israel, was a longtime member of the Conservatives Friends of Israel, a parliamentary group aligned with the Conservative Party, serving as the group’s parliamentarian for many years. In a statement, CFI called Amess “a hugely popular and respected MP and a great friend of Israel.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid echoed the sentiment on Twitter, writing “he always stood with the Jewish community and was a true friend of Israel.”

Two Kentucky Jewish leaders who spoke with Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-KY) office this week said the senator’s aides told them it was up to the Jewish community to lobby against Afghanistan aid if they wanted supplemental Iron Dome funding to move forward quickly.

Paul is the sole senator blocking efforts to quickly pass the House bill providing $1 billion in additional aid to Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system. He has insisted that the bill be amended to withdraw all aid to Afghanistan — which he says could end up with the new Taliban government — and reallocate some of it to Iron Dome.

“What [Paul’s office is] suggesting is it’s the Jewish community’s responsibility to convince Congress to stop funding Afghanistan, so that that money can go to Iron Dome. I’m flabbergasted by that suggestion,” Daniel Grossberg, a Jewish political activist in the state who participated in a call with Paul staffers on Tuesday, told Jewish Insider. “These are two unrelated issues. They are suggesting that the Jewish people are responsible for defunding potential terrorism in Afghanistan in order to secure their existence in the Jewish homeland.”

Mindy Haas, executive director of the Lexington-area Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass, who was also on the call, echoed Grossberg’s assessment of the message conveyed by Paul’s staff.

“We don’t feel that it’s fair that the Jewish people are being used as a pawn right now. We need to make sure that we are able to protect the people of Israel,” Haas said. “Nobody likes what’s going on [in Afghanistan], but we have to protect the people of Israel. And it’s not just Jews in Israel, it’s all people in Israel.”

Grossberg added that Paul’s staff failed to provide a satisfactory explanation of why the senator was linking the two issues.

“[Paul’s state director, Rob Givens,] kept reiterating that the senator’s stance is clearly supportive of Iron Dome, but he is quite insistent on marrying it to defunding Afghanistan,” he said. “They couldn’t give me any good explanation of what one has to do with the other.”

“I didn’t take it as antisemitic,” he added. “I just can’t understand what the senator’s justification [is].”

Grossberg told JI earlier this week that “it’s not easy being a Jew in politics in Kentucky,” while another Jewish political activist, Rabbi Shlomo Litvin, said there has been “extraordinary antisemitism” within the Libertarian Party of Kentucky, with which Paul has ties, “so it’s not surprising to see that those associated with the Libertarian Party of Kentucky are hearing antisemitic voices.”

Paul’s office has been reiterating to interested constituents the same points he’s made in Senate speeches on the issue, a source familiar with the matter told JI.

“The only alternatives to my plan to pay for Iron Dome funding are to either continue to print money, the inflationary effects of which will result in an effective tax increase on every American, or borrow even more money from Communist China,” Paul has said in a message sent to constituents that was shared with JI. “I proposed a different solution: funding Iron Dome by defunding the Taliban… will continue to make the case to my colleagues that funding Iron Dome by defunding the Taliban is the best way to strengthen the United States, Israel, and our partnership.”

Paul’s actions are also garnering criticism from the House Democrats who led the charge on the standalone Iron Dome funding bill.

“Just as I denounced the political stunts in the House by members of my own party, I denounce the Republican opposition to passing the funding for Iron Dome in the Senate,” said Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) — who urged senators not to tie Iron Dome funding to other issues in an interview with JI last month. “We must honor our commitment to Israel and drop these stalling tactics before it’s too late.”

Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) told JI earlier this week that Paul’s actions are “abhorrent” and he should “let it go.”

Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley called the Biden administration’s decision to rejoin the United Nations Human Rights Council on Thursday “dangerous” hours after the U.S. was elected to join the body.

“If President Biden truly cared about human rights, he would keep us far away from the cesspool that is the U.N. Human Rights Council,” Haley told Jewish Insider on Thursday afternoon. “America left it under President Trump because we refused to lend our credibility, as the most generous country in the world, to cover for the world’s worst tyrants and dictators. [Biden’s] actions today aren’t just embarrassing; they’re dangerous.” 

Former President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the council in 2018, citing hypocrisy among members of the body, whom the administration accused of committing human rights violations and bias against Israel.

“For too long,” Haley said at the time, “the Human Rights Council has been a protector of human rights abusers, and a cesspool of political bias.”

Current U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the U.S. “will oppose the Council’s disproportionate attention on Israel, which includes the Council’s only standing agenda item targeting a single country.”

“The Council provides a forum where we can have open discussions about ways we and our partners can improve,” Secretary of State Tony Blinken said in a statement on Thursday. “At the same time, it also suffers from serious flaws, including disproportionate attention on Israel and the membership of several states with egregious human rights records. Together, we must push back against attempts to subvert the ideals upon which the Human Rights Council was founded.”

In addition to the U.S., Cameroon, Eritrea and the United Arab Emirates also joined the council on Thursday.