Trump Signs Bill To Eliminate Rape Kit Backlog In Communities Across The Country

President Trump has signed into law a bill to provide funding for the states to reduce the backlog in testing rape kits - a set of forensic evidence collected after an assault is reported.

The Debbie Smith Reauthorization Act, 2019 provides funding from the Justice Department to help local governments expedite processing of rape kits and offer quicker resolutions in sexual assault cases.

The Debbie Smith Act, 2004 was named after a victim who was attacked in 1989 and whose evidence was not tested until five years after the assault.

In a statement from Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham, the White House said the Debbie Smith Reauthorization Act would ensure that more sexual predators are brought to justice: “We know that DNA is much more likely than fingerprints to result in the identification of a criminal, yet thousands of rape kits currently sit untested in labs and on police storage shelves across the Nation,” said Grisham, who went on to say that the President was proud to work with Congress to achieve this bipartisan reauthorization.

ABC reports that there are over 100,000 untested rape kits in communities across the country. The newly reauthorized legislation will provide $151 million to the Debbie Smith DNA Backlog Grant Program, $12.5 million for DNA training and education programs and $30 million for the Sexual Assault Forensic Exam Grant Program.

Since its enactment, The Debbie Smith Act has led to more than 40 percent of DNA matches in rape and sexual assault cases. While funding has traditionally been partisan, the law got caught up in a macro and deeply partisan debate over the Violence Against Women Act earlier this year.

Continued funding will allow victims to more expediently seek justice, particularly in jurisdictions with statutes of limitations on these crimes.