GRAPEVINE (WBAP/KLIF)- U.S. Senator John Cornyn is calling on congress to support a bill that would reauthorize funding to help states eliminate the backlog of untested rape kits. Cornyn spoke with sexual assault survivors during a visit to the Gatehouse Women’s Crisis Center in Grapevine to get support for the Debbie Smith Act of 2019.
The bill was signed into law in 2004 to provide funding for local and state crime lab for DNA analysis. This has resulted in more than 860,000 DNA cases processed. Over the past eight years, the Debbie Smith Act has helped Texas reduce its rape kit backlog by 90%.
Without congressional action, the program will expire and will lose funding by September 30th. The new bill will reauthorize funding for another 5 years to continue the testing of DNA evidence, including rape kits form unsolved crimes nationwide. “These are serial offenders, it’s not just a one off,” Cornyn said. “They are also opportunistic so if they can’t get a women they may target a child…these are very dangerous people and we need to get them off the street,” Cornyn said. The bill also contains important reforms to ensure that sexual assault evidence is prioritized to the greatest extent possible. The bill now waits action by the House of Representatives.