RELEASE: Gottheimer & White House Announce $42 Million+ in Funding From Washington to New Jersey

Above: Gottheimer announces $42 million+ in funding to New Jersey.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, July 24, 2026, U.S. Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) and the White House announced more than $42 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding to strengthen law enforcement and keep Jersey communities safe. This funding comes on top of the $8.5 million previously secured to protect Jersey during the World Cup, totaling more than $50 million clawed back for New Jersey law enforcement since June. 

Watch Gottheimer’s announcement here.

Half of the new funding clawed back today — $21 million — will go statewide, to support New Jersey public safety, including State Police, defraying World Cup related expenditures, and other public safety and transit measures up and down the state.

The other half — $21 million — is going directly to New Jersey’s Fifth Congressional District, for public safety in Bergen, Passaic, and Sussex Counties, including local and county law enforcement efforts, transit security, and security for houses of worship and religious schools. 

Breakdown of Funds and Their Use:

• Gear for cops on the ground: Allows local and state police to invest in updated radios, drones, gear for active shooter and mass-casualty response, and K-9 training. 
• Protecting places of worship: Provides security upgrades like armed guards, cameras, reinforced doors, fencing, and more for synagogues, churches, mosques, temples, and other nonprofits. Jersey families shouldn’t have to think twice about safety when they go to their place of worship.
• Securing transportation hubs: Adds additional security cameras, cybersecurity protections, and physical reinforcement of the Andover train station. This project that Gottheimer has championed for years, will bring rail back to Sussex County for the first time in over 50 years. These added security dollars will help avoid any delays in getting this critical station open. 

“Today, building on that, and working with the White House, I am proud to announce that we have clawed back more than $42 million in FEMA grant funding from Washington, DC to New Jersey for public safety right here in Jersey’s Fifth Congressional District. Every single day, rain or shine, late nights, early mornings, weekends, holidays, kids’ birthdays and other family occasions, you put on the uniform, and you respond without hesitation. You get our backs. And I want you to know, as ever, that I’ll always get yours,” said Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5). “The men and women who wear the badge go above and beyond to protect us, and they’ve earned every bit of support we can give them — for the big events and the everyday calls alike. That’s what this funding is about. I went to bat in Washington, and after months of negotiations and relentless advocacy, I clawed back more than $42 million home to Jersey and put it exactly where it belongs: in the hands of the brave men and women keeping our communities safe.”

“Keeping New Jersey families safe starts with making sure our first responders have the resources they need to do their jobs. Our congressional delegation is essential in delivering federal dollars that help strengthen public safety in communities across our state, and I want to thank Congressman Gottheimer for helping secure this funding for New Jersey. For too long, New Jerseyans have sent far more to Washington than we receive in return. This investment is a step toward ensuring our taxpayers see more of their hard-earned dollars come back home to support our first responders,” said Governor Mikie Sherrill.

Resources will flow to the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness through several grants, including the State Homeland Security Program (SHSP),; the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI); the Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG); the Transit Security Grant Program (TSGP); and the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP). These resources are dedicated to disaster prevention, supporting the law enforcement and security operations that keep our communities safe and secure.

Gottheimer was joined by Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella; Passaic County Prosecutor Camilla Valdes; Sussex County Prosecutor Dan Perez; Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco III; Senator Gordon Johnson; Assemblywoman Lisa Swain; Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich; Newton Mayor Matthew Dickson; Fair Lawn Mayor Cristinie Cutrone; Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mark Park; Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes; Ringwood Mayor Jamie Landis; Lafayette Mayor Richard Hughes; Ho-Ho-Kus Mayor Thomas Randall; Vernon Mayor Anthony Rossi; Wanaque Mayor Dan Mahler; Bloomingdale Mayor John D’Amato; Andover Deputy Mayor Krista Ghilcrist; Ringwood Councilwoman Yvonne M. Echols; Tenafly Borough Administrator David Fanslau; Wanaque Borough Administrator Rob Hermansen; Tenafly Borough Clerk Omar Stovall; and Bergen, Passaic, and Sussex County first responders.

Below: Gottheimer announces $42 million+ in funding to New Jersey.

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Gottheimer’s remarks as prepared for delivery: 

Good morning, everyone.

First, I want to start by thanking the hard-working people standing here with us today. Jersey’s finest. 

Our local police departments. Our sheriffs and county prosecutors and their teams. Our state troopers. Our firefighters and our EMS crews. Everyone who answers the call, no matter the hour.

You roll up on a call at two in the morning, not knowing what’s on the other side of that door. You chase down a stolen car through a school zone. You answer a 911 call for help because someone’s having a heart attack. You stand post for hours outside a house of worship because a threat came in overnight. The job never slows down, and the risks just keep getting bigger.

Every single day, rain or shine, late nights, early mornings, weekends, holidays, kids’ birthdays and other family occasions, you put on the uniform and you respond without hesitation. You get our backs. And I want you to know, as ever, that I’ll always get yours.

Far too often, our local and county police departments — the men and women protecting the towns you live in, whether that’s in Bergen, Passaic, or Sussex Counties — have been stretched thin, without all the resources they need to protect our families and themselves. 

Updated radios and communication systems. Specialty drones. Additional K-9 units. Gear for the worst-case scenarios nobody wants to think about — and all of the training that goes along with it. It’s all expensive. But the truth is that you want them to have it.

Why? Thanks to our phenomenal law enforcement and prosecutors, crime is down in Jersey with a 30% drop in statewide shootings and a 6% overall crime rate reduction over the last year. Auto thefts are down 9% since 2024 due to coordinated federal, state, and local action, but more needs to be done. 

Just this past June, our NJ cops busted more than 60 criminals involved in an $8 million auto theft ring that stole more than 90 cars by breaking into homes for key fobs and then shipping the cars to West Africa. Other auto thieves are changing their tactics to steal sensors and airbags out of cars parked on the street to sell on the black market. Cyber theft is also surging across New Jersey, with victims losing more than $435 million, ranking Jersey 5th nationwide for total losses to cybercrime. And organized retail crime continues to be a problem in our state, with highly professional groups targeting our local businesses to seize merchandise that they sell for a profit.

Thanks to social media, cable news, and massive disinformation, one area that has moved in the wrong direction is hate crimes, especially those that are religiously motivated.

Houses of worship, like synagogues, churches, mosques, and temples, are facing elevated threats both in Jersey and across the country. In fact, according to the ADL, Jersey had the third-most antisemitic incidents of any state in the country, with Bergen County having the highest number in the state. 

People are being attacked walking to temple, like the young man shot with a pellet gun in Teaneck earlier this year. We saw the horrific attack in New York City just yesterday, with a man screaming “Allahu akbar” as he stabbed a parishioner walking out of a synagogue. Churches, synagogues, schools, and other houses of worship have had to spend their own money, out of their own pockets, when federal dollars don’t go far enough, on security officers, cameras, alarms, and reinforced doors, just so their congregants can pray safely. In the greatest country in the world, people should be able to go to church or temple without fear.

On top of that, World Cup expenses hit our local communities, county, and state — including transit, logistics, infrastructure, and overtime costs. We obviously needed it to keep our communities safe — after all, we were hosting the world, and we did an excellent job. New Jersey at its best. But I don’t want the World Cup to hit the pocketbooks of our families — or our towns. I don’t want it coming out of your state income and local property taxes. The families in Jersey shouldn’t be footing the bill for a global sporting event that FIFA and the federal government have a responsibility to fund.

The bottom line: ensuring our public safety — keeping Jersey families safe — is essential. It’s not optional. But it’s also expensive. To help cover costs, I’ve spent the last few months in Washington working overtime, not just to help cover World Cup costs, but also to do everything we can to support our first responders — to claw more of your federal tax dollars back to North Jersey, so you don’t have to pick up the tab on your state and local taxes. Months of meetings. Months of calls. Months of negotiations. I worked with the White House and with FEMA to make sure Jersey, and especially the towns right here in the 5th District, got the funds we deserve.

In June, I proudly announced that I had clawed back $8.5 million to help cover World Cup law enforcement overtime costs for cops across Bergen County and in and around MetLife — including millions for our state police.

Today, building on that, and working with the White House, I am proud to announce that we have clawed back more than $42 million in FEMA grant funding from Washington, DC to New Jersey for public safety right here in Jersey’s Fifth Congressional District.

My dad told me a long time ago: you don’t get it if you don’t ask — and if you don’t fight hard for what’s yours. Well, I’ve also said that I’ll work with the other side if it’s good for Jersey. Protecting our towns and our state is good for Jersey; standing by law enforcement is good for Jersey; protecting our synagogues and churches to protect religious freedom is good for Jersey. Making sure Jersey is safe and our families are safe is good. This is about solving real problems that our community and our families are facing.

You know what else is good? Fighting the Moocher States and clawing money back to Jersey to help get our taxes down. 

Historically, Mississippi gets about $4.38 back for every dollar it sends to Washington. West Virginia gets about $4.23 back. But New Jersey? We get about 67 cents on the dollar. That’s not nearly enough for what we put in, and far too much ends up on your state and property taxes. The less that goes to other states and the more that comes to us means lower state and property taxes for Jersey families.

Keeping score for Jersey taxpayers: in under three months, between today’s $42 million and the $8.5 million for World Cup safety in June, that’s $50.5 million clawed back from Washington to Jersey to protect our families and first responders — in just three months. 

That’s all about getting your taxes down and getting money away from the Moocher States.

Those are your tax dollars pouring back into our community, keeping your property taxes down and making real, local improvements for Jersey families.

Here’s how it breaks down. Half of the new funding we clawed back today — $21 million — will go statewide, to support New Jersey State Police, law enforcement efforts up and down the state, transit security, and nonprofit security. And the other half — $21 million — is coming back home to our own Fifth Congressional District, right here for public safety in Bergen, Passaic, and Sussex Counties.

Let me tell you exactly where this money is going, and what it’s going to do.

First: part of the $42 million will go toward protecting law enforcement and our communities, including local, county, and state police, to invest in updated radios to communicate, drones, and equipment for active shooter and mass-casualty response, along with K-9s and training. It will also help towns build and improve their emergency operations centers. That will help ensure that a cop in Hackensack, an officer in Ringwood, or a deputy in Sussex County has the tools they actually need to protect Jersey families — and come home safe at the end of the shift, or when you wake up at 2 a.m. to respond to a health emergency.

These dollars will invest in emergency radio replacement for towns like Fort Lee that need to transition to modern, reliable communication systems. I know radios might not sound exciting, but they’re absolutely vital to helping our officers get the job done in our towns and across the county. When an officer chases a suspect from one town into the next, their radios have to bridge that gap. When they need an ambulance on scene, they have to reach EMS instantly — no delay, no dead air. When a fire crew backs up a neighboring department, they have to be on the same channel. That’s the difference between help getting there in time and not.

We learned that the hardest way possible. On 9/11, our first responders couldn’t communicate. Radios from different departments didn’t talk to each other, servers and radios failed in the towers, and firefighters climbing those stairwells never got the order to get out. Brave men and women died in part because the equipment failed them. We swore we’d never let that happen again, and the technology never stops changing, so neither can we.

That’s why, working hand in hand with the Bergen County Prosecutor, we’re setting up a dedicated fund for radios and communications equipment, hosted right out of the Prosecutor’s office. And we will do the same for the towns I represent in Passaic and Sussex Counties. Any town can come to us and flag that they need radios, and we’ll do our best to get you what you need — or a down payment toward it.

Second, part of the $42 million we’ve clawed back will go to protecting our houses of worship here in the Fifth Congressional District. No family should have to think twice about their safety when they walk into a synagogue, a church, a mosque, or a temple. 

This funding provides real security upgrades like cameras, security guards, fences, reinforced doors, and alarm systems for our congregations and our nonprofits right here in North Jersey. And security is expensive.

Historically, thanks to our strong coordination with our houses of worship, and my relentless push in Washington, our district has clawed back the most nonprofit security grant funding of any district in Jersey. That makes sense — we have the highest number of antisemitic incidents of any district in the state. 

Antisemitic incidents are up 70 percent since October 7, and hate of all kinds is thriving. Our places of worship, whether synagogues, mosques, churches, or Sikh temples, need the resources to protect their worshippers from this vile hatred, against any religion.

Third, part of the $42 million we’ve clawed back from Washington will help cover costs we got stuck with for the World Cup — which, I’ll mention again, was in Jersey, not New York, by the way. These dollars will help cover security operations, like the intelligence analysts, the traffic officers, the task force deployments, and extra emergency equipment.

Finally, part of the $42 million we clawed back today will go to securing our transportation hubs, including extra security cameras, cybersecurity protections, and physical reinforcements, including to the Andover Train Station project. These added security dollars will help avoid any delays in getting this critical station open for my constituents.

For years, I’ve pushed NJ TRANSIT and Amtrak to stop the bureaucratic delays and finally bring passenger rail back to Sussex County — and specifically Andover Train Station — for the first time in more than fifty years. 

There are zero options for folks in Sussex County to get on a train to get to work or to see a family member. I’ve heard from so many residents, businesses, and local elected officials about this issue, and about the urgent need for more transportation options to New York City from across Sussex. I’ve sent letters, done site visits, and clawed millions back in the bipartisan infrastructure bill to keep Andover on the map. Now that we’re finally close to getting trains running again, the least we can do is make sure the station we fought so hard for is safe and secure from day one.

One more point: as I mentioned, half of the $42 million will help protect families and first responders across the state. I am coordinating closely with the Governor and her team to direct these dollars to the most important needs across Jersey — from State Police to our counties and towns. We will announce more specifics about those dollars in the coming weeks. That’s on top of what we’ve clawed back for Bergen, Passaic, and Sussex Counties.

Here’s the bottom line: these are your federal tax dollars. You pay them every single year. The question is always the same: how much of that money actually comes back home to New Jersey, back to the towns you live in, instead of going somewhere else?

My job is to fight for every dollar I can, and claw it back here, where it belongs. That’s what this is: Jersey families’ own federal tax dollars, coming back home to protect Jersey — to protect our families, whether that’s in your neighborhood or at your temple or church.

This isn’t about one headline or one event. This is about the men and women who show up every single day. You’ve earned every bit of support we can give you. And there’s nothing partisan about this. This is about common sense. About solving problems. And putting our country first.

I am so proud to stand here today. I am so grateful for everything these incredible public servants do for every single one of us, every single day.

If we keep working together to support our communities, in the greatest country in the world, our best days will always be ahead of us.

Thank you, may God bless you, your families, and our first responders.