Debbie Smith Reauthorization Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Ms. ERNST. Mr. President, I stand proudly before this body today in support of the passage of the Debbie Smith Act of 2019. Since its enactment in 2004, the Debbie Smith Act has been renewed twice with overwhelming bipartisan support. With the tireless work of Senator Cornyn and Senator Feinstein, we will renew this vital piece of legislation for a third time today.

I want to thank Senator Cornyn very much for being such a diligent leader on behalf of this act.

The Debbie Smith Act removes one of the most substantial and burdensome roadblocks to survivors of sexual violence achieving the justice they deserve. I have told many people about the time I volunteered when I was a young woman in Iowa State University. I volunteered for a crisis hotline and a woman's shelter. The type of work I was able to volunteer for at that time was responding with a beeper to crisis calls at the hospital for women who had been through a rape. That, in itself, is very difficult, but the follow-on work that has to be done can often be just as difficult if evidence is not processed timely.

The Debbie Smith Act does this by providing funding for crime labs that process DNA evidence and by strengthening the national DNA database used to help solve these horrific crimes. In addition, this bipartisan bill supports audits of evidence awaiting analysis at law enforcement agencies and charges the Justice Department with the task of developing national testing guidelines.

We all know the criminal justice system isn't designed to be fair to survivors of sexual violence, and it is not easy on them. It certainly is not a comfortable process.

Coming forward as a survivor is not the end. It is just the beginning. That is why it is so important that this Congress, with Senator Cornyn's leadership, and our criminal justice system support survivors of sexual violence by funding the availability of DNA evidence to help bring these predators to justice.

Again, I thank the Senator for his diligent work on this. The bipartisan Debbie Smith Act helps to bring us to the end that our survivors need and they deserve. Thank you for your leadership.

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