Goodlatte & Bass Introduce Bill to Protect Victims of Rape

Washington, D.C. — House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Congresswoman Karen Bass (D-Calif.) today introduced the Debbie Smith Reauthorization Act of 2014 (H.R. 4323) to extend a federal DNA backlog processing grant program through 2019. 

The original Debbie Smith Act was authored after rape survivor Debbie Smith testified before Congress in June 2001 about using DNA evidence to solve rape cases.  The Debbie Smith Act was passed in 2004 as part of the Justice for All Act, which ensured DNA evidence could be used to convict the guilty and created a grant program for state and local governments to reduce the backlog of DNA samples.  Since then, millions of dollars in federal funding have been appropriated under the Debbie Smith DNA Backlog Grant Program to process the hundreds of thousands of DNA evidence kits across the United States.  The grant program’s authorization is currently set to expire at the end of fiscal year 2014. 

Below are statements from Chairman Goodlatte and Congresswoman Bass on the bill’s introduction.

Chairman Goodlatte: “Victims of rape shouldn’t have to wait years for their perpetrators to come to justice simply because their DNA evidence is backlogged. We must do everything we can to expedite the processing of DNA evidence so that we take these criminals off of our streets and prevent other women from being victimized. A decade ago, Congress passed the Debbie Smith Act to help law enforcement find, prosecute, and lock up these perpetrators in jail by reducing the DNA backlog across the country. I am pleased to join Congresswoman Bass today in introducing a bill to reauthorize this critical program and urge Congress to move swiftly on this legislation.”

Congresswoman Bass: “Fortunately, Democrats and Republicans are working together to make sure that victims of rape are not victimized again because the evidence that was taken as part of rape kits is not being processed. When a rape victim is assaulted, the current law ensures the victim’s injuries are treated and that evidence is properly collected and maintained. The program has worked, and this legislation will ensure that it will continue to work. I want to thank Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney for her leadership on introducing the original Debbie Smith Act and Chairman Goodlatte for reaching across the aisle to ensure that we continue to help people when they need it the most.”

Text of the bill can be found here.