Congress Bill Offers Disaster Relief to Houses of Worship
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
A bipartisan trio of northeastern members of the U.S. House of Representatives reintroduced legislation that would provide direct relief to synagogues and churches damaged by natural disaster.
Reps. Chris Smith, (R-N.J.), Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) and Peter King (R-N.Y.), this week introduced the Federal Disaster Assistance Nonprofit Fairness Act, which would override existing Federal Emergency Management Agency rules that exclude houses of worship from recovery funds.
Read: Hit by Sandy, Synagogue Finds Faith Renewed
A similar bill introduced by Meng and Smith in the last Congress, in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, passed overwhelmingly in February 2013, but never made it through the Senate.
The Orthodox Union, which lobbied for the bill, praised the lawmakers.
““The recent flooding in Houston reminds us that houses of worship are equally affected by severe flooding and natural disasters,” Nathan Diament, the O.U.’s Washington director, said in a statement Thursday. “When a natural disaster occurs, most often it is the churches and synagogues that offer comfort and a place to gather for members of the community.”
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
