S. 1539 would authorize the appropriation of $75 million annually from 2020 through 2024 for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to provide grants to certain nonprofit organizations to enhance security measures aimed at guarding against terrorist attacks. Those measures would include hardening potential targets with physical security and covering the costs of security training for employees. Under the bill, states would administer the grants to the nonprofit organizations. The bill also would require FEMA to report annually to the Congress about the spending of funds provided to recipients.
FEMA currently administers the Nonprofit Security Grant Program and in 2018 allocated funds totaling $60 million to make grants under that program.
Based on historical spending patterns for the grants made under that program, CBO estimates implementing the bill would cost $166 million over the 2020-2024 period and $202 million after 2024, assuming appropriation of the authorized amounts.
The costs of the legislation (detailed in Table 1) fall within budget function 450 (community and regional development).
On July 9, 2019, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for H.R. 2476, the Securing American Non-Profit Organizations Against Terrorism Act of 2019, as passed by the House of Representatives on June 10, 2019. The two pieces of legislation are similar and CBO’s estimates of their costs are the same.
