Maloney Praises Inclusion of $41 Million to Cut DNA Rape Kit Backlog in House Appropriations Bill

Statement

Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) today praised the members of the House Appropriations Committee for including in the 2015 Omnibus Appropriations bill an additional $41 million to eliminate the national backlog in DNA Rape Kit Analysis. The funding is in addition to $117 million provided through the Debbie Smith Act--legislation Maloney authored and worked to reauthorize earlier this year, which has provided grants to state and local governments for rape kit analysis since 2004.

"I have fought for more than a decade to eliminate the rape kit backlog, but not a week goes by that we don't hear of another serial rapist being put behind bars using DNA evidence that should have been tested long ago," said Maloney. "This additional funding, in concert with the Debbie Smith Act grants already being provided, will help eliminate the backlog once and for all. No woman should be victimized simply because the DNA evidence needed to take her rapist off the streets was never tested."

The enhanced funding was included in the Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bills, which passed in the House and Senate earlier this year. These bills were not signed into law because Congress opted to pass a continuing resolution instead of regular appropriations bills.

The $41 million will be used to establish a competitive grant program to support multi-disciplinary community response teams tasked with a comprehensive approach to sexual assault cases. The goal of the grant program will be to address the growing backlog of sexual assault kits at law enforcement agencies.

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