Supporting Survivors from Faith-based Communities Act
Sponsored By: Representative Frankel, Lois [D-FL-22]
Introduced
Summary
National Resource Center to help faith communities support survivors. This bill would create and fund a center run by a consortium to train faith groups, service providers, and legal actors to better respond to domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking in faith contexts.
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- Survivors and families would get faith-informed, trauma-centered support, referrals, and attention to spiritual abuse and religious divorce denial. A victim advisory working group of faith-based survivors would be created and compensated.
- Clergy, seminaries, faith-based schools, and youth groups would receive training to recognize and prevent abuse, adopt safety protocols, and develop prevention programs aligned with faith values. The center would be run by a funded consortium that must include at least three eligible entities, including two faith-based organizations from different underserved faith communities and one culturally specific organization.
- Victim service providers, law enforcement, courts, housing providers, health professionals, and researchers would receive technical assistance to make responses more faith-inclusive and to accommodate religious needs like modesty, prayer, and dietary observances.
*If enacted, this bill would authorize $2 million per year for fiscal years 2027–2031, totaling $10 million in authorizations and modestly increasing federal spending.*
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
2 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
National center for faith-based survivors
This bill would fund a National Resource Center to help survivors who identify with a faith and the communities that serve them. The Attorney General, through OVW, would award grants to a consortium to run the Center and $2,000,000 would be authorized for each year FY2027 through FY2031. In the first grant year grantees would use funds to set up operations, staffing, governance, and partnerships. Grants would pay for training, technical help, OVW convenings, and a paid victim advisory working group. Funds could not be used to proselytize and must supplement, not replace, existing OVW faith-focused grants; grantees would report annually and OVW would send a compiled report to Congress by November 1 of each even-numbered fiscal year.
Model laws for religious divorce
This bill would direct the Attorney General to develop and publish model State laws to address religious divorce denial. The Attorney General would consult with experts, victims, faith leaders, and service providers. The model language would have to account for religious laws and cultural practices and be designed to work within affected faith communities while meeting Constitutional requirements. States could use this model language when drafting their own laws.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Frankel, Lois [D-FL-22]
FL • D
Cosponsors
Rep. Kim, Young [R-CA-40]
CA • R
Sponsored 5/14/2026
Rep. Fitzpatrick, Brian K. [R-PA-1]
PA • R
Sponsored 5/14/2026
Rep. Krishnamoorthi, Raja [D-IL-8]
IL • D
Sponsored 5/14/2026
Randall
WA • D
Sponsored 5/14/2026
Salazar
FL • R
Sponsored 5/14/2026
Simon
CA • D
Sponsored 5/14/2026
Wilson (FL)
FL • D
Sponsored 5/14/2026
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
View on Congress.gov