Lawmakers ask for $20 million to improve security of faith-based community centers

Two U.S. lawmakers are asking for $20 million to improve the security of Jewish and other faith-based community centers following a series of bomb threats.

The bill proposed by two senators — one Republican and one Democrat — would allocate $20 million to faith-based community centers to improve their security through an existing Department of Homeland Security grant program, Religion News Service reported.

The legislation will not cover synagogues, mosques or churches even though attacks against houses of worship and religiously affiliated cemeteries have increased in recent months.

The Faith-Based Community Center Protection Act would also double the penalty for those who get caught making false bomb threats from five to 10 years in prison.

"This legislation would help ensure that community centers like the JCC's have the added protection they need and can focus on serving the community, while the FBI and our Justice Department track down those responsible," read a statement from Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), who filed the bill last week along with Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV).

On Friday, the FBI arrested a 31-year-old man from Missouri in connection with some of the bomb threats against Jewish community centers.

Juan Thompson, who was picked up in St. Louis, is suspected to be responsible for at least eight bomb threats against Jewish institutions in New York, including the Anti-Defamation League, and across the country.

The threats are believed to be a part of Thompson's cyberstalking scheme to retaliate against his former girlfriend.

"Thompson's alleged pattern of harassment not only involved the defamation of his female victim, but his threats intimidated an entire community," said FBI Assistant Director William Sweeney Jr.

In an email to the ADL's Manhattan office on Feb. 21, the woman was named and accused of being responsible for the bomb threats. "She lives in nyc and is making more bomb threats tomorrow," the email stated.

The complaint against Thompson stated that the alleged harassment began after their relationship ended. He reportedly sent defamatory emails and faxes to the woman's employer and made false reports of criminal activity by the victim as well as Jewish center threats in her name.

Since Jan. 9, Jewish institutions across the U.S. have received over 100 bomb threats, with 77 of them directed against Jewish community centers in dozens of states. While no explosives have been found, the threats have alarmed staff and clients at the centers, causing them to evacuate.

Apart from the bomb threats, three cemeteries in New York, Philadelphia and St. Louis have been vandalized recently.