I 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2197 

To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to 

provide incentives to States and units of local government under the 

Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program for providing 

certain services to victims of sexual assault or rape, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 15, 2011 

Mr. NADLER (for himself, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. HASTINGS of Florida, Ms. LEE

of California, Ms. NORTON, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. STARK, and Mr. 

TOWNS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets 

Act of 1968 to provide incentives to States and units 

of local government under the Edward Byrne Memorial 

Justice Assistance Grant Program for providing certain 

services to victims of sexual assault or rape, 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 ‘‘Justice for Rape Vic5 tims and Improving Use of DNA Evidence Act of 2011’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. INCENTIVE FUNDS UNDER THE BYRNE GRANT PRO2 GRAM FOR STATES AND UNITS OF LOCAL 

3 GOVERNMENT THAT PROVIDE CERTAIN 

4 SERVICES TO VICTIMS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT. 

5 Section 505 of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe 

6 Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3754) is amended by add7 ing at the end the following new subsection: 

8 ‘‘(i) INCENTIVE FUNDS FOR PROVIDING CERTAIN

9 SERVICES TO VICTIMS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AND ESTAB10 LISHING RAPE KIT DATABASES.— 

11 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The amounts allocated 

12 under this section to a State or unit of local govern13 ment for a fiscal year (beginning with the first fiscal 

14 year that begins at least one year after the date of 

15 the enactment of this subsection) shall be increased 

16 by 10 percent if such State or unit of local govern17 ment provides and certifies, in accordance with such 

18 standards as the Attorney General may require, that 

19 the State or unit of local government had in effect, 

20 for the previous fiscal year, each of the following: 

21 ‘‘(A) EXAMINATION AND TESTING OF RAPE

22 KIT.—A process to provide to each victim of 

23 sexual assault, with respect to an act of sexual 

24 assault over which the State or unit of local 

25 government has jurisdiction, each of the fol26 lowing: 


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1 ‘‘(i) Examination by a qualified sexual 

2 assault nurse examiner to collect a rape kit 

3 from such victim. 

4 ‘‘(ii) Testing of any rape kit collected 

5 from such victim and the furnishing of any 

6 results from such test to the victim not 

7 later than 180 days after the date on 

8 which such testing was requested. 

9 ‘‘(B) RAPE KIT DATABASE.—A database 

10 developed and maintained by such State or unit 

11 of local government related to rape kits col12 lected, in connection with acts of sexual assault 

13 over which the State or unit of local govern14 ment has jurisdiction, from victims of such acts 

15 that complies with the following requirements: 

16 ‘‘(i) The database, for each rape kit 

17 collected from each victim of sexual as18 sault, provides for the following: 

19 ‘‘(I) Identifies such rape kit by a 

20 unique identifying number. 

21 ‘‘(II) Contains information on 

22 the date and location of each of the 

23 following: 


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1 ‘‘(aa) The act of sexual as2 sault for which such rape kit was 

3 collected. 

4 ‘‘(bb) The medical examina5 tion conducted from which such 

6 rape kit was collected. 

7 ‘‘(cc) The testing of such 

8 rape kit. 

9 ‘‘(III) Contains information on 

10 the real-time physical location of such 

11 rape kit, including street address, lo12 cality, and State. 

13 ‘‘(IV) Contains information on 

14 the results of any testing of such rape 

15 kit. 

16 ‘‘(ii) Information contained in the 

17 database, with respect to a rape kit, may 

18 be made available only as follows: 

19 ‘‘(I) On a publically available 

20 Internet site but only to the extent 

21 that such information does not include 

22 any personally identifiable information 

23 (including the name of the victim as24 sociated with a unique identifying 

25 number). 


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1 ‘‘(II) To criminal justice agencies 

2 for law enforcement identification pur3 poses. 

4 ‘‘(III) In judicial proceedings, if 

5 otherwise admissible pursuant to ap6 plicable statutes or rules. 

7 ‘‘(IV) To a physician or nurse 

8 who is treating a victim of sexual as9 sault from whom the rape kit was col10 lected for injuries resulting from the 

11 sexual assault of such victim or with 

12 respect to the collection of such rape 

13 kit, but only insofar as the informa14 tion relates to such treatment. 

15 ‘‘(V) To the victim of sexual as16 sault from whom the rape kit was col17 lected, if the information made avail18 able is limited to information relating 

19 to the rape kit collected from such vic20 tim. 

21 ‘‘(iii) Information contained in such 

22 database shall be searchable by any of the 

23 criteria specified in clause (i), subject to 

24 the availability of such information under 

25 clause (ii). 


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1 ‘‘(iv) Access for purposes of data 

2 entry and editing (including updating) of 

3 such database shall be limited to appro4 priate individuals of a State or local law 

5 enforcement agency. 

6 ‘‘(2) FUNDING.— 

7 ‘‘(A) RATABLE REDUCTION FOR INSUFFI8 CIENT FUNDS.—If there are insufficient funds 

9 for a fiscal year to allocate to each State or 

10 unit of local government the amount of incen11 tive funds that such State or unit of local gov12 ernment is eligible to receive under this sub13 section, the Attorney General shall ratably re14 duce the percentage of the increase described in 

15 the matter preceding subparagraph (A) of para16 graph (1) until there are sufficient funds to 

17 provide an allotment of incentive funds under 

18 this section to all States and units of local gov19 ernment that are eligible to receive such incen20 tive funds. 

21 ‘‘(B) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIA22 TIONS.—In addition to funds made available 

23 under section 508, there are authorized to be 

24 appropriated for incentive funds under this subVerDate Mar 15 2010 02:02 Jun 18, 2011 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2197.IH H2197

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1 section such sums as may be necessary for each 

2 of the fiscal years 2012 through 2016. 

3 ‘‘(3) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this sub4 section: 

5 ‘‘(A) The term ‘sexual assault’ has the 

6 meaning given such term in section 40002(a) of 

7 the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (42 

8 U.S.C. 13925(a)). 

9 ‘‘(B) The term ‘victim of sexual assault’ 

10 means an individual who seeks medical treat11 ment or care for an injury sustained as a result 

12 of sexual assault and reports such injury to a 

13 local or State law enforcement officer or agen14 cy. 

15 ‘‘(C) The term ‘rape kit’ means DNA evi16 dence obtained related to sexual assault. 

17 ‘‘(D) The term ‘qualified sexual assault 

18 nurse examiner’ means a nurse that has ob19 tained certification from a hospital, govern20 mental entity, or an institution of higher edu21 cation (as defined in section 102 of the Higher 

22 Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1002)), for 

23 the collection of rape kits from victims of sexual 

24 assault. 


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1 ‘‘(E) The term ‘tested’ means, with respect 

2 to a rape kit, that such rape kit has undergone 

3 forensic analysis. 

4 ‘‘(F) The term ‘unique identifying number’ 

5 means a series of letters, numbers, or a com6 bination thereof, that a law enforcement agency 

7 assigns to a rape kit that— 

8 ‘‘(i) such agency receives in connec9 tion with an act of sexual assault; and 

10 ‘‘(ii) is used in place of the name of 

11 a victim of sexual assault in the database 

12 established under this subsection except if 

13 the person accessing the database is the 

14 victim of sexual assault or a member of a 

15 law enforcement agency.’’. 

16 SEC. 3. STUDY AND REPORT ON DNA BACKLOG. 

17 Subsection (g) of section 2 of the DNA Analysis 

18 Backlog Elimination Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 14135(g)) 

19 is amended— 

20 (1) by redesignating paragraphs (1), (2), and 

21 (3) as subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C), respectively; 

22 (2) by moving subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C) 

23 (as so redesignated by paragraph (1) of this section) 

24 two ems to the right; 


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1 (3) by striking ‘‘(g) REPORTS TO CONGRESS— 

2 Not’’ and inserting the following: 

3 ‘‘(g) REPORTS TO CONGRESS.— 

4 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not’’; and 

5 (4) by adding at the end the following new 

6 paragraph: 

7 ‘‘(2) STUDY AND REPORT TO CONGRESS ON

8 DNA BACKLOG.— 

9 ‘‘(A) STUDY.—The Attorney General shall 

10 conduct an annual study to determine the ex11 tent of the backlog in the United States relat12 ing to the analysis of DNA samples collected 

13 from crime scenes, victims, suspects, arrestees, 

14 and convicted offenders. Such study shall deter15 mine the following: 

16 ‘‘(i) The number of each of the fol17 lowing: 

18 ‘‘(I) DNA samples that have 

19 been prepared to be sent to a public 

20 or private crime laboratory for foren21 sic analysis but have not been sent to 

22 such laboratory. 

23 ‘‘(II) Investigations for which 

24 DNA samples described in subclause 

25 (I) have been collected. 


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1 ‘‘(III) DNA samples that have 

2 been received by a public or private 

3 crime laboratory for forensic analysis 

4 but have not yet been tested at such 

5 laboratory. 

6 ‘‘(IV) Investigations for which 

7 DNA samples described in subclause 

8 (III) have been collected. 

9 ‘‘(ii) For each category of DNA sam10 ple and for each category of investigation 

11 for which such samples exist, the average 

12 duration of the following periods: 

13 ‘‘(I) The period beginning on the 

14 date that is 30 days after the date 

15 each sample is collected and ending on 

16 the date each sample is sent to a pub17 lic or private crime laboratory to be 

18 tested. 

19 ‘‘(II) The period beginning on 

20 the date that is 30 days after the date 

21 each sample is received by a public or 

22 private crime laboratory and ending 

23 on the date each sample is tested at 

24 each such laboratory. 


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1 ‘‘(B) REPORT.—Not later than two years 

2 after the date of the enactment of this para3 graph and for each year thereafter, the Attor4 ney General shall submit to Congress a report 

5 containing— 

6 ‘‘(i) the results of the study conducted 

7 under subparagraph (A); 

8 ‘‘(ii) a statistical analysis of the data 

9 contained in such study, disaggregated by 

10 jurisdiction, criminal offense, type of DNA 

11 evidence tested, if available, and any other 

12 category of information the Attorney Gen13 eral may require; and 

14 ‘‘(iii) recommendations on how to re15 duce— 

16 ‘‘(I) the number of DNA samples 

17 and investigations described in sub18 paragraph (A)(i); and 

19 ‘‘(II) the average duration of the 

20 periods described in subparagraph 

21 (A)(ii). 

22 ‘‘(C) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this 

23 paragraph: 

24 ‘‘(i) The term ‘DNA sample’ means 

25 evidence containing human DNA collected 


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1 by Federal, State, local, or tribal law en2 forcement agencies. 

3 ‘‘(ii) The term ‘investigation’ includes 

4 any investigatory action taken by a Fed5 eral, State, tribal, or local law enforcement 

6 agency. 

7 ‘‘(iii) The term ‘tested’ means, with 

8 respect to a DNA sample, that such sam9 ple has undergone forensic analysis.’’. 

Æ 


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