Senate Approves Ayotte-Backed Bill to Empower Sexual Assault Survivors

Press Release

The Senate yesterday unanimously passed the bipartisan Survivors' Bill of Rights Act (H.R. 5578). U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte is a cosponsor of the Senate companion bill-the Sexual Assault Survivors' Rights Act (S. 2566), which passed the Senate unanimously in May as part of the Adam Walsh Reauthorization Act, which Ayotte also cosponsored. The legislation seeks to empower survivors of sexual assault by requiring survivors to be given more information about evidence collection and their rights during the forensic examination process.

"I am pleased to see that Democratic leadership has put politics aside and allowed this important bill to pass so that we can work to further empower survivors of sexual assault," said Senator Ayotte. "As New Hampshire's former Attorney General, I worked with survivors of sexual violence, and I firmly believe we must do more to end this horrible crime. The forensic examination and investigation process can be grueling for survivors, and this bill will help ensure they are informed of their rights during the proceedings. This bipartisan legislation will also give survivors better recourse in the court system by fully preserving corresponding evidence for the complete period of the statute of limitations so that we can continue to investigate and prosecute these crimes."

Ayotte is a strong supporter of programs and federal funding to help prevent domestic and sexual violence and improve our response to better support and empower survivors. This week, she welcomed grants from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women for New Hampshire's Department of Justice to support survivors of sexual and domestic violence and to strengthen partnerships between law enforcement, the justice system, and victim services organizations to enhance survivor safety and hold offenders accountable. These grant programs were authorized by the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which Ayotte helped reauthorize in 2013.

In addition to helping introduce the legislation that reauthorized VAWA, Ayotte has consistently supported the highest possible funding for programs to fight domestic and sexual violence. She has written to Senate appropriators yearly, urging them to fund at the highest possible levels VAWA programs and Family Violence Prevention and Services Act programs. Additionally, Ayotte has been a consistent advocate for Victims of Crime Act assistance programs and the Crime Victims Fund.

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