After conferring with the staffs of key members of both chambers on both sides of the aisle, we are cautiously optimistic that there will another round of grants this year. The efforts to renew the grant program are led by the Washington office of the JCPA. William Daroff, Rob Goldberg, Ron Soloway of UJA-Federation of NY and David Pollock of JCRC-NY attended a whirlwind round of meetings in Washington, DC.

Our group learned that Senate Appropriations Chair, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, hammered out a Continuing Resolution, together with her ranking Republican, Sen. Richard Shelby, that included $10 million dollars for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. As written, the funding will be subject to sequestration (about a 5.1% reduction), but that DHS/FEMA could not redirect the funding elsewhere. At this time, we understand that the Senate Continuing Resolution was carefully preconferenced (negotiated) with the House and arguably should be adopted with few changes. However, trouble always seems to find the House and Senate and procedural hurdles and the amendment process could get in the way.

If there is a 2013 program the application period might be very short, e.g., 2 weeks. If you are thinking of applying for a grant we strongly suggest that you check out our Security Grant Assistance Page because we expect that there will be minimal changes in the application process. Have all of the materials for your Investment Justification (your vulnerability assessment and the answers to the questions on the 2012 Investment Justification) ready to submit before Congress acts. If a new round of grants is announced you will be able to quickly determine any changes in the 2013 Investment Justification and merely cut and past your answers into the 2013 spreadsheet.