Debbie Smith Reauthorization Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. NADLER. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 4323, the Debbie Smith Act.

Every 2 minutes in this country, someone is sexually assaulted. That means, by the time I finish my remarks today, at least one man, woman, or child will have been brutally attacked.

By the end of this year, more than 200,000 people--nearly all of them women and girls--will have been victimized in the most inhuman way. Only 60 percent of victims will ever report their attacks, and barely 3 percent of attackers will ever serve a day in prison.

These statistics are staggering, and we are not doing all we can to ensure that every victim has access to the justice he deserves. Too often, victims who are willing to report their attacks face invasive examinations, which leave them feeling victimized all over again.

They then wait, often living in fear and with no information from law enforcement, while their rape kits collect dust in evidence lockers or sit on lab shelves. Every untested rape kit is a lost opportunity to provide justice and to catch dangerous criminals.

To see the importance of rape kit testing, look no further than New York City. In 1999, the city enacted a policy to test every rape kit and to eliminate its backlog of over 17,000 kits, and 15 years later, that policy has made a world of difference.

Every kit collected in New York is tested within 30 to 60 days, and the arrest rate for rape has skyrocketed from 40 percent to 70 percent. Compare that to the national rate of 24 percent. Clearly, the more rape kits we test, the more rapists we get off the streets.

Imagine what would happen if we tested all of the 400,000 rape kits that are still sitting on the shelves today around the country.

I have fought to end the rape kit backlog for nearly 15 years. In 2000, I supported the passage of the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act, which provided $40 million to help States analyze DNA evidence.

When the rape kit backlog failed to decrease by 2002, I introduced the Rape Kit DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act, which would have authorized $250 million to help police departments finance rape kit testing.

In 2004, I cosponsored and worked closely with Mr. Sensenbrenner and others to enact the Justice for All Act that created the Debbie Smith DNA Backlog Grant Program, which authorized hundreds of millions of dollars for DNA testing and strengthened the ability of State and local law enforcement to test rape kits.

While I am pleased that we will reauthorize the Debbie Smith Grant Program today, I am disappointed that we are not considering a complete reauthorization of the Justice for All Act, including the Kirk Bloodsworth Post-Conviction DNA Testing Grant programs.

DNA evidence is vital to providing justice for all people by putting violent criminals behind bars and by exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals. We should not allow a vital program to lapse because it is less politically expedient.

It is my hope that we can work together to pass a complete reauthorization of the Justice for All Act as our colleagues in the Senate claim to do shortly. In the 10 years since the creation of the Debbie Smith DNA Backlog Grant Program, we have seen much progress, but the backlog continues to be a major problem, and prosecuting is uneven across the country.

I commend the chairman of the committee and the ranking member and all of the other Members who have worked on this bill. I urge my colleagues to support the bill and to work towards a day when no rape kit goes untested and every victim of sexual assault sees justice.

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