Claim: In 2013," Dan Patrick voted "against funding to test the backlog of rape kits, allowing rapists to walk free.
Verdict: REFUTES

Retrieved passages:
title: Debbie Smith Reauthorization Act of 2014
text: by President George W. Bush on October 30, 2004. The bill was reauthorized in 2008. At that time, there remained serious concerns about a backlog in the testing of rape kit DNA samples. Investigations conducted by CBS News and by Human Rights Watch revealed in 2009 that despite five years and millions in federal funding, rape kit backlogs persisted in the United States and had increased in several grant supported states and counties. According to a 2009 CBS News investigation, at least 20,000 untested rape kits were being held in four major U.S. cities and an additional twelve major cities

title: Dan Patrick (politician)
text: strongly advocated for a bathroom bill proposed on January 5, 2017 by Senator Lois Kolkhorst of Brenham. Patrick made legislation prohibiting state or local governments from issuing subpoenas on pastors' sermons a priority in the 2017 session. Governor Abbott signed the bill into law on May 21, 2017. Patrick opposes abortion and supported Texas' "Mandatory Ultrasound Bill", a bill signed into law in May 2011 by Governor Perry, which requires women seeking abortion to have a sonogram of the fetus taken at least twenty-four hours before the abortion is performed. Patrick opposes abortion in cases of incest and rape. In

title: Debbie Smith Reauthorization Act of 2014
text: had no idea how many rape kits remained untested in law enforcement storage facilities. An October 2008 audit of the Los Angeles city crime lab by Human Rights Watch revealed that rape kit backlogs increased between 2004 and 2008, despite nearly $4 million in Debbie Smith DNA Backlog Program grants. In January 2007, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) revealed that approximately 5,000 rape kits resided in LAPD storage facilities. By July 2008 the backlog grew to 7,300, but was later estimated at 5,193 by a February 2009 audit. On March 3, 1989, a man wearing a ski mask entered

title: Data activism
text: system and the national DNA database Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) that left these rape kits unexamined. Testing these rape kits is important in identifying and prosecuting offenders, recognizing serial rapists, and providing justice for rape victims. The Ending the Backlog Initiative brought attention to this issue by demanding that the data from these rape kits be processed. It was this initiative that brought this issue to the attention of the United States government, who began stated that this was unacceptable and put $79 million in grants would be used to help eliminate the backlog of rape kits. The quantification

title: Debbie Smith Act
text: funding, rape kit backlogs persist in the United States and have increased in several grant supported states and counties. According to a 2009 CBS News investigation, at least 20,000 untested rape kits were being held in four major U.S. cities and an additional twelve major cities had no idea how many rape kits remained untested in law enforcement storage facilities. An October 2008 audit of the Los Angeles city crime lab by Human Rights Watch revealed that rape kit backlogs increased between 2004 and 2008, despite nearly $4 million in Debbie Smith DNA Backlog Program grants. In January 2007, the

title: Dan Patrick (politician)
text: bill allowing pastors to refuse marrying couples if it violates their beliefs, and expanded border security and enforcement measures. On May 13, 2016, Patrick criticized the Obama administration, after it released a directive stating that all public schools must allow transgender students to use the bathroom and locker facilities that correspond with their identified gender, stating that, on the prospect of the federal government withholding funding for Texas schools for not following the directive, "he can keep his 30 pieces of silver [and that w]e will not yield to blackmail from the president of the United States." Patrick supported and

title: Debbie Smith Reauthorization Act of 2014
text: kits that need to be tested, these are lives that need to be given back to their owners," arguing that the bill was very important to the victims of rape. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) also spoke in favor of the bill, arguing that "this is one of those rare bills that virtually guarantees that it will put real criminals behind bars and protect people more effectively against one of the most traumatic assaults imaginable." Rep. Bob Goodlatte praised Debbie Smith's courage. He also said that he was "pleased that the House voted today to stand by these brave victims and

title: Rape kit
text: backlog of nearly 8,000 rape kits accumulated between 1995 and 2009, only 20% of which were tested. Effective September 1, 2010, The Illinois Senate's Sexual Assault Submissions Act (Senate Bill 3269) requires law enforcement agencies to submit all evidence collected by rape kits for laboratory analysis within 180 days after the effective date of October 15, 2010, with a written notice to the State Police. Illinois was the first state to adopt such a law, setting a precedent for other states to follow. As of January 1, 2011, the Illinois House of Representatives Bill 5976 addresses victims' confidentiality rights and

title: Dan Patrick (politician)
text: terrorist attacks. Patrick is also frequently at odds with the "Houston Chronicle" and announced a boycott of that newspaper in April 2004. He owned a blog called "Chronically Biased ", which criticized the newspaper. Patrick was first elected to Texas State Senate's seventh district in 2006, winning the primary election with 68.8% of the vote and the general election with 69.2% of the vote. His term began on January 9, 2007 with the convening of the Eightieth Texas Legislature. During his first month as a legislator, Patrick introduced Senate Bill 186. If passed, it would have made abortion in Texas

title: Dan Patrick (politician)
text: illegal should the Supreme Court overturn "Roe v. Wade". The bill was co-sponsored by fellow Texas state senators Craig Estes and Glenn Hegar. Patrick obtained passage of three Senate bills during his first session, the fewest number among the five freshmen senators. The other four freshmen Senators—Glenn Hegar (32 Senate bills passed), Kirk Watson (15 Senate bills passed), Robert Nichols (14 Senate bills passed), and Carlos Uresti (12 bills passed) – had previous government experience in other capacities. In the 2010 general election, Patrick was reelected with 86.4% of the vote. He also endorsed Rick Perry for re-election in the

title: Benjamin LaGuer
text: walking alone in a parking garage, the narrator asks, "have you ever heard a woman compliment a rapist?" The ad was widely perceived as backfiring on Healey because of its negative tone. Patrick ultimately won the race by a margin of more than 20 percentage points. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard LaGuer's appeal on January 4, 2007 and a ruling was rendered on March 23, 2007. The SJC unanimously upheld LaGuer's conviction. Soon after the decision a former caretaker to the victim stepped forward with new information about the victim's state of mind before and after the crime which

title: Dan Patrick (politician)
text: man and one woman. He then further stated his intentions to fight such decisions should he be elected to the Lt. Governor's office. Patrick strongly opposed HERO, an unsuccessful Houston ordinance intended to establish legal protections for gay and transgender residents along with some other classes, as he claimed that the ordinance would lead to sexual predators being freely able to enter women's restrooms. Patrick has stated that if necessary, he would support legislation to require people to use the bathroom that corresponds to the gender listed on their birth certificates. Hours after the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, Patrick tweeted

title: Dan Patrick (politician)
text: January 2014, when he was asked about exceptions to outlawing abortion, Patrick said, "The only exception would be if the life of the mother was truly in danger…but that is rare." Patrick supports increasing the number of charter schools in the state. In February 2011, Patrick, who at the time was vice chairman of the Texas senate's Committee on Education, spoke in favor of cutting an unspecified number of non-teaching positions from the state's public school districts, citing positions such as "math department supervisors" or "curriculum experts". At the time, Patrick cited a statistic later determined to be misleading by

title: Rape kit
text: analysis. When someone fails to request a DNA analysis, the kit sits in a police evidence storage facility untested. A rape kit is considered backlogged when it is not submitted for analysis within 10 days of the evidence being submitted. A second cause of the backlog is crime laboratory facilities receiving the rape kits and not testing them in a timely manner. The Joyful Heart Foundation, an anti-sexual violence charity founded by actress and activist Mariska Hargitay, considers these kits backlogged when the kit is not analyzed within 30 days of it being sent to the lab. Conservative estimates indicate

title: Rape kit
text: residing at police crime labs. These backlogs consist of both kits stored in evidence storage facilities, for which DNA analysis is not requested by investigating detectives, and those submitted for testing at crime lab facilities, but which have not been tested in a timely manner. Although authorities have struggled to address the backlog problem, their attempts have reportedly been hampered by funding issues and politics. As a consequence of these backlogs, assault survivors are often not informed of the status of their rape kit or their case. Across Illinois, where law enforcement and prosecutors handle sex crimes differently, a police

title: Diane Patrick (Texas politician)
text: also backed companion legislation to increase medical and licensing requirements of abortion providers. These issues brought forth an unsuccessful filibuster in the Texas State Senate by Wendy R. Davis of Fort Worth, who in 2014 was the Democratic nominee for governor. The Texas Right to Life Committee rated Patrick 67 percent favorable in 2013, 60 percent in 2011. Patrick co-sponsored the bill to prohibit texting while driving. She backed the successful bill to extend the franchise tax exemption to certain businesses. She voted to require testing for narcotics of those receiving unemployment compensation. She voted for the "equal pay for

title: Joe Arpaio
text: an abortion. The family did not know that the rape kit had been tested at the state lab and showed the presence of semen. The lab requested that the detective obtain a blood sample from the suspect, Patrick Morrison. Instead of obtaining the blood sample, or making an arrest, the detective filed the crime-lab note and closed the case for four years. In September 2011 the sheriff's office obtained a blood sample from Patrick Morrison, which was a DNA match with the semen taken over four years earlier. Patrick Morrison was arrested and charged in February 2012; he pleaded guilty

title: Carolyn Maloney
text: into law of a measure to provide federal funding to clear the backlog of rape kits for which evidence had been collected, but never entered into law enforcement DNA databases. It was called "the most important anti-rape legislation ever considered by Congress" by the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network. Maloney's bill, included in the "Justice for All Act of 2005", was named the Debbie Smith Act in honor of Debbie Smith, a rape survivor. The effort to enact the bill was later the subject of a Lifetime Television movie, "A Life Interrupted: The Debbie Smith Story", in which Maloney

title: Rape kit
text: the timely processing of rape kit evidence. Both bills passed the Illinois General Assembly unanimously, and were signed by Governor Pat Quinn. In New York State, a rape kit is also known as Sexual Offense Evidence Collection (SOEC) kit. As of 1999, New York City in particular harbored nearly 17,000 untested rape kits, which were eventually eliminated with outside labs. In 2007, the city opened a $290 million forensic biology lab. In 2015, the New York County District Attorney's Office announced that they would be awarding $38 million in grants to jurisdictions across the country in order to test backlogged

title: Rape kit
text: either cited economic concerns or declined to respond to her inquiries. After Howard adopted the program, survivors encountered the problem of requiring police authorization before receiving a rape examination, which is attributed by Snyder to the desire to maintain low crime rates on the part of law enforcement agencies, which the "Washington Paper" depicted as unsympathetic to the plight of the rape survivors profiled in their report. Detective Vincent Spriggs, of D.C.'s Sexual Assault Unit, cites instances of false or unconvincing rape accusations, and requests for rape kits by woman who wish to have pregnancy tests or the morning-after pill