On May 15, federal prosecutors in Manhattan unsealed a complaint against a 32-year-old commander of Kataib Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Iraqi militia, who they say sent an undercover officer a photograph and a map pinpointing a prominent New York synagogue, texted over a document describing its congregants as supporters of Israel’s right to exist, and then paid $3,000 in cryptocurrency to set the bombing in motion. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the plot was aimed at “the heart of our Jewish community.” That is the threat that a coalition of nearly every major faith in America is now asking Congress to help them buy locks, cameras and blast film against.

Led by the American Jewish Committee, a group of Jewish and interfaith organizations has written to congressional leaders urging an expansion of the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program to “up to $1 billion,” according to a report by Jewish Insider. The letter describes “an unprecedented and escalating threat environment facing religious communities and institutions across the United States” and argues the threat “is not abstract; it is very real and felt by the communities we represent on a daily basis.”

The grant program is a Department of Homeland Security pot of money, run since 2005, that pays nonprofits and houses of worship at high risk of attack for the unglamorous stuff: reinforced doors, shatter-resistant glass, blast film on the windows, cameras, alarms, fencing, panic buttons and active-shooter training, per FEMA’s description of the program and its eligible uses.