Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. Chair, first, I would like to express my appreciation for the career of Chairman Wolf, in particular, his cochairmanship of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. He has done tremendous work during his time in Congress on human rights issues that are of great import, and chairing that commission named for our great colleague Tom Lantos is impressive, and I thank you for that.

The amendment I have before us would increase by $5 million the bill's funding for grants to address the backlog of sexual assault kits at law enforcement agencies. DNA analysis has been revolutionary in helping to catch criminals and prevent crimes from occurring in the first place, but this evidence does us no good if it remains untested and sits on the shelf in a lab somewhere. Despite progress over the last few years, the number of untested rape kits continues to number in the hundreds of thousands in our Nation. That is hundreds of thousands of victims whose assailants have never been brought to justice, left to prey on yet more women.

A recent article in the Memphis Commercial Appeal highlighted the need to end this backlog once and for all. It described a serial rapist who was finally caught by the police in 2012. He could have been stopped nearly a decade earlier if only his first victim's rape kit had been tested. It was not, and instead he was able to and did attack five more women over the next 8 years.

Missed opportunities like this happen all across our country every day. The trauma inflicted on victims of rape can be compounded when they know their assailants roam free while critical evidence goes untested.

Sadly, I must say the city of Memphis leads the country in untested rape kits, with a backlog of over 12,000 built up over decades. The mayor and our city leadership have committed to addressing this problem and have devoted significant resources to eliminating the backlog, but they need our help. The estimates are that it would cost at least $6.5 million to test each rape kit, far beyond the means of a city forced to tighten its belt in these difficult times and deal with our economic problems. This makes the Federal assistance essential.

I appreciate the chairman's commitment to eliminating the backlog, and the funds in this bill are an important start. They put in $36 million, $1 million more than I think the President recommended. It is merely a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed.

This amendment would take $5 million from the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is a $2 billion agency that receives a $35 million increase in this bill, even though their work product will go down because of the lack of need to enforce marijuana laws in States where it has been legalized or medical marijuana has been legalized. With the growing number of States in that category, DEA can and will shift its resources from marijuana and still have plenty of money to prevent prescription drug abuse, stop major heroin and cocaine traffickers and the other drug trade that they should make as their priority.

DEA would barely notice these funds, but for a small investment we can make an even more significant cut in the rape kit backlog at law enforcement agencies. Women will be spared being raped, and justice will be served.

I think the choice should be clear. We should stand with the victims of this most heinous crime that we know in this Nation and ensure their assailants are brought to justice.

I urge the adoption of my amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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