Debbie Smith Act of 2023
Floor Speech
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Mrs. WAGNER. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Issa for yielding. I thank the chairman of the full Committee on the Judiciary, Jim Jordan, for his leadership and collaboration with my office in ushering this bill through the Judiciary Committee under thorough regular order.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of my bipartisan and bicameral bill, H.R. 1105, the Debbie Smith Act of 2023.
No woman should ever have to experience the trauma and the pain of a rape or sexual assault. Yet tragically, these crimes are far too common, and approximately one in four women will experience this horrific crime.
There must be accountability, Mr. Speaker.
That means identifying, apprehending, and prosecuting the attackers to the fullest extent of the law.
One of the most important methods of investigating these crimes is through DNA analysis. However, in 2019, the Government Accountability Office found that backlogged DNA analysis requests at State and local crime labs increased by 85 percent over the last decade, and the most recent data estimates that 200,000 sexual assault kits across the country remain untested.
This is absolutely unacceptable, Mr. Speaker.
My bill, H.R. 1105, addresses this issue directly. H.R. 1105 is a straight reauthorization of the Debbie Smith DNA Backlog Grant Program through fiscal year 2029.
This vital program provides support for law enforcement in all 50 States to help police improve their procedures for collecting DNA evidence from rape kits and crime scenes; support the proper and timely analysis of this evidence with a specific priority placed on rape and sexual assault kits; audit untested DNA evidence from sexual assault cases; and it enhances the capacity of State and local prosecutors to bring these cases to court.
This program has been incredibly effective since it was first established, Mr. Speaker. Funding from this program has directly resulted in nearly 1.8 million DNA cases analyzed and processed, including over 600,000 crime scenes and rape kits.
Because of these efforts, the Debbie Smith DNA Backlog Grant Program accounts for over half of all of the matches, or hits, in the Federal criminal DNA database. That is quite literally helping survivors reach the justice, the accountability, and the closure that they need.
Mr. Speaker, we must not let this program lapse at the end of this fiscal year.
I was proud to lead the previous iteration of this bill in 2019 with my dear friend Representative Carolyn Maloney. I am beyond thankful to the 85 bipartisan Members of Congress who have signed on in support of this legislation.
I also thank Majority Leader Steve Scalise and his team--you know who you are--for bringing this bill to the floor, Subcommittee Chairman
Andy Biggs for his partnership in moving this bill through the proper legislative process, as well as Senators Cornyn, Klobuchar, Graham, and the Late Senator Dianne Feinstein for their leadership in the Senate.
Through our bicameral work, this bill has only gotten stronger. We have added an important provision to ensure that a portion of the funds from this program specifically are set aside for the auditing of untested rape kits. This will support law enforcement's efforts to fully account for the rape kits in their possession so that they can be more efficiently analyzed, processed, and used to put rapists behind bars.
I thank Senator Rand Paul for this legislative contribution, and I look forward to seeing an overwhelming bipartisan show of support for this bill and this program on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Mr. Speaker, I say to Debbie Smith: I have heard her calls to get this done, and I promise her this program will be reauthorized as soon as possible.
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Mrs. WAGNER. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
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