I

103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 829

To amend title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of

1968 to authorize funds received by States and units of local government

to be expended to improve the quality and availability of DNA records;

to authorize the establishment of a DNA identification index; and for

other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FEBRUARY 4, 1993

Mr. EDWARDS of California (for himself, Mr. HYDE, and Mr. KOPETSKI) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the

Judiciary

A BILL

To amend title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe

Streets Act of 1968 to authorize funds received by States

and units of local government to be expended to improve

the quality and availability of DNA records; to authorize

the establishment of a DNA identification index; and

for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘DNA Identification

5 Act of 1993’’.
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1 SEC. 2. FUNDING TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY AND AVAIL2 ABILITY OF DNA ANALYSES FOR LAW EN3 FORCEMENT IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES.

4 (a) DRUG CONTROL AND SYSTEM IMPROVEMENT

5 GRANT PROGRAM.—Section 501(b) of title I of the Omni6 bus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42

7 U.S.C. 3751(b)) is amended—

8 (1) in paragraph (20) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the

9 end,

10 (2) in paragraph (21) by striking the period at

11 the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’, and

12 (3) by adding at the end the following:

13 ‘‘(22) developing or improving in a forensic lab14 oratory a capability to analyze deoxyribonucleic acid

15 (hereinafter in this title referred to as ‘DNA’) for

16 identification purposes.’’.

17 (b) STATE APPLICATIONS.—Section 503(a) of title I

18 of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of

19 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3753(a)) is amended by adding at the

20 end thereof the following new paragraph:

21 ‘‘(12) If any part of a grant made under this

22 part is to be used to develop or improve a DNA

23 analysis capability in a forensic laboratory, a certifi24 cation that—

25 ‘‘(A) DNA analyses performed at such lab26 oratory will satisfy or exceed then current
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1 standards for a quality assurance program for

2 DNA analysis, issued by the Director of the

3 Federal Bureau of Investigation under section 3

4 of the DNA Identification Act of 1993;

5 ‘‘(B) DNA samples obtained by, and DNA

6 analyses performed at, such laboratory will be

7 accessible only—

8 ‘‘(i) to criminal justice agencies for

9 law enforcement identification purposes;

10 ‘‘(ii) for criminal defense purposes, to

11 a defendant, who shall have access to sam12 ples and analyses performed in connection

13 with the case in which such defendant is

14 charged; or

15 ‘‘(iii) if personally identifiable infor16 mation is removed, for a population statis17 tics database, for identification research

18 and protocol development purposes, or for

19 quality control purposes; and

20 ‘‘(C) such laboratory, and each analyst

21 performing DNA analyses at such laboratory,

22 will undergo, at regular intervals of not to ex23 ceed 180 days, external proficiency testing by a

24 DNA proficiency testing program meeting the
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1 standards issued under section 3 of the DNA

2 Identification Act of 1993.’’.

3 (c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—Section

4 1001(a) of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets

5 Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3793(a)) is amended—

6 (1) by redesignating the last 3 paragraphs se7 quentially as paragraphs (7), (8), and (9); and

8 (2) by adding at the end the following:

9 ‘‘(10) There are authorized to be appropriated

10 for each of the fiscal years 1994 through 1998

11 $10,000,000 for grants to the States for DNA anal12 ysis.’’.

13 SEC. 3. QUALITY ASSURANCE AND PROFICIENCY TESTING

14 STANDARDS.

15 (a) PUBLICATION OF QUALITY ASSURANCE AND PRO16 FICIENCY TESTING STANDARDS.—(1) Not later than 180

17 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Direc18 tor of the Federal Bureau of Investigation shall appoint

19 an advisory board on DNA quality assurance methods.

20 The Director shall appoint members of the board from

21 among nominations proposed by the head of the National

22 Academy of Sciences and professional societies of crime

23 laboratory officials. The advisory board shall include as

24 members scientists from state and local forensic labora25 tories, molecular geneticists and population geneticists not
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1 affiliated with a forensic laboratory, and a representative

2 from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

3 The advisory board shall develop, and if appropriate, peri4 odically revise, recommended standards for quality assur5 ance, including standards for testing the proficiency of fo6 rensic laboratories, and forensic analysts, in conducting

7 analyses of DNA.

8 (2) The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investiga9 tion, after taking into consideration such recommended

10 standards, shall issue (and revise from time to time)

11 standards for quality assurance, including standards for

12 testing the proficiency of forensic laboratories, and foren13 sic analysts, in conducting analyses of DNA.

14 (3) The standards described in paragraphs (1) and

15 (2) shall specify criteria for quality assurance and pro16 ficiency tests to be applied to the various types of DNA

17 analyses used by forensic laboratories. The standards shall

18 also include a system for grading proficiency testing per19 formance to determine whether a laboratory is performing

20 acceptably.

21 (4) Until such time as the advisory board has made

22 recommendations to the Director of the Federal Bureau

23 of Investigation and the Director has acted upon those

24 recommendations, the quality assurance guidelines adopt25 ed by the technical working group on DNA analysis meth-
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1 ods shall be deemed the Director’s standards for purposes

2 of this section.

3 (b) ADMINISTRATION OF THE ADVISORY BOARD.—

4 For administrative purposes, the advisory board appointed

5 under subsection (a) shall be considered an advisory board

6 to the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

7 Section 14 of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5

8 U.S.C. App.) shall not apply with respect to the advisory

9 board appointed under subsection (a). The board shall

10 cease to exist on the date 5 years after the initial appoint11 ments are made to the board, unless the existence of the

12 board is extended by the Director of the Federal Bureau

13 of Investigation.

14 SEC. 4. INDEX TO FACILITATE LAW ENFORCEMENT EX15 CHANGE OF DNA IDENTIFICATION INFORMA16 TION

17 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the Federal Bu18 reau of Investigation may establish an index of—

19 (1) DNA identification records of persons con20 victed of crimes;

21 (2) analyses of DNA samples recovered from

22 crime scenes; and

23 (3) analyses of DNA samples recovered from

24 unidentified human remains.
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1 (b) CONTENT OF INDEX.—Such index may include

2 only information on DNA identification records and DNA

3 analyses that are—

4 (1) based on analyses performed in accordance

5 with publicly available standards that satisfy or ex6 ceed the guidelines for a quality assurance program

7 for DNA analysis, issued by the Director of the Fed8 eral Bureau of Investigation under section 3 of the

9 DNA Identification Act of 1993;

10 (2) prepared by laboratories, and DNA ana11 lysts, that undergo, at regular intervals of not to ex12 ceed 180 days, external proficiency testing by a

13 DNA proficiency testing program meeting the stand14 ards issued under section 3 of the DNA Identifica15 tion Act of 1993; and

16 (3) maintained by Federal, State, and local

17 criminal justice agencies pursuant to rules that allow

18 disclosure of stored DNA samples and DNA analy19 ses only—

20 (A) to criminal justice agencies for law en21 forcement identification purposes;

22 (B) for criminal defense purposes, to a de23 fendant, who shall have access to samples and

24 analyses performed in connection with the case

25 in which such defendant is charged; or
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1 (C) if personally identifiable information is

2 removed, for a population statistics database,

3 for identification research and protocol develop4 ment purposes, or for quality control purposes.

5 (c) The exchange of records authorized by this section

6 is subject to cancellation if the quality control and privacy

7 requirements described in subsection (b) of this section are

8 not met.

9 SEC. 5. FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

10 (a) PROFICIENCY TESTING REQUIREMENTS.—

11 (1) GENERALLY.—Personnel at the Federal

12 Bureau of Investigation who perform DNA analyses

13 shall undergo, at regular intervals of not to exceed

14 180 days, external proficiency testing by a DNA

15 proficiency testing program meeting the standards

16 issued under section 3(b). Within one year of the

17 date of enactment of this Act, the Director of the

18 Federal Bureau of Investigation shall arrange for

19 periodic blind external tests to determine the pro20 ficiency of DNA analysis performed at the Federal

21 Bureau of Investigation laboratory. As used in this

22 paragraph, the term ‘‘blind external test’’ means a

23 test that is presented to the laboratory through a

24 second agency and appears to the analysts to involve

25 routine evidence.
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1 (2) REPORT.—For five years after the date of

2 enactment of this Act, the Director of the Federal

3 Bureau of Investigation shall submit to the Commit4 tees on the Judiciary of the House and Senate an

5 annual report on the results of each of the tests re6 ferred to in paragraph (1).

7 (b) PRIVACY PROTECTION STANDARDS.—

8 (1) GENERALLY.—Except as provided in para9 graph (2), the results of DNA tests performed for

10 a Federal law enforcement agency for law enforce11 ment purposes may be disclosed only—

12 (A) to criminal justice agencies for law en13 forcement identification purposes; or

14 (B) for criminal defense purposes, to a de15 fendant, who shall have access to samples and

16 analyses performed in connection with the case

17 in which such defendant is charged.

18 (2) EXCEPTION.—If personally identifiable in19 formation is removed, test results may be disclosed

20 for a population statistics database, for identification

21 research and protocol development purposes, or for

22 quality control purposes.

23 (c) CRIMINAL PENALTY.—(1) Whoever—

24 (A) by virtue of employment or official position,

25 has possession of, or access to, individually identifi-
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1 able DNA information indexed in a database created

2 or maintained by any Federal law enforcement agen3 cy; and

4 (B) willfully discloses such information in any

5 manner to any person or agency not entitled to re6 ceive it;

7 shall be fined not more than $100,000.

8 (2) Whoever, without authorization, willfully obtains

9 DNA samples or individually identifiable DNA informa10 tion indexed in a database created or maintained by any

11 Federal law enforcement agency shall be fined not more

12 than $100,000.

13 SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

14 There are authorized to be appropriated to the Fed15 eral Bureau of Investigation $2,000,000 for each of fiscal

16 years 1994 through 1998 to carry out sections 3, 4, and

17 5 of this Act.

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