One lawmaker who voted for the Tennessee bill, Rep. Terry Lynn Weaver, said the national motto "will help future generations of students better understand the importance of faith and remind them that the very bedrock of our nation was built on the principles of the God of the bible."

As part of its efforts, Project Blitz aims to encourage and support conservative lawmakers who introduce bills "to fully protect religious liberty and the free exercise of our faith in the public square," as well as "to see the public discourse related thereto understood and defined on our terms."

Erdman, who said he believes students were safer and better educated before "we took God and prayer out of the schools in the '80s," said he did not work with Project Blitz or the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation on his bill.

Rather, he said he was inspired by several counties, like Kimball and Morrill counties in his own District 47, as well as neighboring Scotts Bluff County -- which have placed "In God We Trust" in their courthouses in recent years.

Those efforts have been at the urging of Barb Otto, who has zig-zagged the state on behalf of the nonprofit In God We Trust ~ America Inc. to lobby county boards to take up the cause.