I 
115TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 7292 
To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish the 
Megan Rondini and Leah Griffin national sexual assault care and treat-
ment task force, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 13, 2018 
Mr. POE of Texas (for himself, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mr. GRIFFITH, and Mrs. 
BLACK) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on 
Ways and Means, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently de-
termined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
to establish the Megan Rondini and Leah Griffin na-
tional sexual assault care and treatment task force, and 
for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Megan Rondini and 
Leah Griffin Sexual Assault Victims Protection Act of 
2018’’. 
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SEC. 2. MEGAN RONDINI AND LEAH GRIFFIN NATIONAL 
SEXUAL ASSAULT CARE AND TREATMENT 
TASK FORCE. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of Health and 
Human Services shall establish a task force to be known 
as the ‘‘Megan Rondini and Leah Griffin National Sexual 
Assault Care and Treatment Task Force’’ (referred to in 
this section as the ‘‘Task Force’’) to identify barriers to 
improving access to sexual assault forensic examiners, sex-
ual assault nurse examiners, and other forensic medical 
examiners. 
(b) MEMBERSHIP.—The Task Force shall include a 
representative from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid 
Services, the Health and Human Services Immediate Of-
fice of the Secretary, the Health Resources and Services 
Administration, the Indian Health Service, the Office for 
Victims of Crime of the Department of Justice, the Office 
on Women’s Health of the Department of Health and 
Human Services, and the Office on Violence Against 
Women of the Department of Justice, a survivor of sexual 
assault; representatives from regional and national organi-
zations that collectively have expertise in forensic nursing, 
rape trauma or crisis counseling, investigating rape and 
gender violence cases, survivors’ advocacy and support, 
sexual assault prevention education, rural health, and re-
sponding to sexual violence in Native communities; rep-
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resentatives from hospitals, patient groups, and emer-
gency department physicians; representatives of States, in-
cluding States that have in effect State laws or procedures 
that address the objectives described in subsection (c); and 
any other governmental or nongovernmental representa-
tive or stakeholder as specified by the Secretary, in con-
sultation with the Attorney General. 
(c) OBJECTIVES.—To assist and standardize State- 
level efforts to improve medical forensic evidence collection 
relating to sexual assault, the Task Force shall— 
(1) identify barriers to the recruitment, train-
ing, and retention of sexual assault forensic exam-
iners, sexual assault response teams, sexual assault 
nurse examiners, and others who perform such ex-
aminations; 
(2) make recommendations for improving access 
to medical forensic examinations, including the feasi-
bility of, or barriers to, utilizing mobile units and 
telehealth services; 
(3) make recommendations for improving co-
ordination of services, other protocols regarding the 
care and treatment of sexual assault survivors, and 
the preservation of evidence between law enforce-
ment officials and health care providers; 
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(4) make recommendations for updating na-
tional minimum standards for forensic medical ex-
aminer training and forensic medical evidence collec-
tion relating to sexual assault; 
(5) make recommendations for the development 
of resources and best practices described in sub-
section (e) for inclusion on the public website of the 
Department of Health and Human Services; 
(6) make recommendations on the collection 
and retention of sexual assault kits, including anony-
mous or unreported sexual assault kits; 
(7) make recommendations on processes and 
best practices for communicating to sexual assault 
survivors who seek care in the emergency room in-
formation about the availability of forensic medical 
evidence collection as part of the care and treatment 
of such survivors; 
(8) make recommendations to develop, promote, 
and inculcate trauma-informed approaches (as de-
fined in subsection (g)) in the treatment of sexual 
assault victims through training, leadership and su-
pervision; 
(9) make recommendations to inform the devel-
opment of protocols to use when patients seeking 
medical forensic care have not yet reported a crime 
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