Justice Served Act of 2018

Bill: 115-s-2345
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Cornyn, John [R-TX]
Introduced: 2018-01-25
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics
Subjects: Crime and Law Enforcement

Government employee pay, benefits, personnel management
Latest action: action_date: 2018-07-18
text: Committee on the Judiciary. Hearings held.

Summaries:
action_date: 2018-01-25
action_desc: Introduced in Senate
text: <p><b>Justice Served Act of 2018</b></p> <p>This bill amends the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act of 2000 to add, as a purpose area under the Debbie Smith DNA Backlog Grant Program, increasing the capacity of prosecutors to address the backlog of violent crime cases involving suspects identified through DNA evidence. The Department of Justice (DOJ) must allocate a specified percentage of grant funds for such purpose, subject to limitations.</p> <p>Additionally, of amounts made available over FY2019-FY2022 for a DNA analysis and capacity enhancement program and for other forensic activities, DOJ must allocate at least 5% for grants to prosecute cold cases involving violent crime, where suspects have been identified through DNA evidence.</p>

tv_txt: II 115th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 2345 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES January 25, 2018 Mr. Cornyn (for himself, Ms. Klobuchar , Mr. Tillis , Mr. Brown , Mr. Cruz , Mr. Heller , Mrs. Feinstein , Mr. Portman , and Mr. Hatch ) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To amend the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act of 2000 to provide additional resources to State and local prosecutors, and for other purposes.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Justice Served Act of 2018 . 2. Prosecution of DNA cold cases (a) Debbie smith DNA backlog grant program Section 2 of the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act of 2000 ( 34 U.S.C. 40701 ) is amended— (1) in subsection (a), by adding at the end the following: (9) To increase the capacity of State and local prosecution offices to address the backlog of violent crime cases in which suspects have been identified through DNA evidence. ; and (2) in subsection (c), by adding at the end the following: (5) Allocation of grant awards for prosecutors For each fiscal year, not less than 5 percent, but not more than 7 percent, of the grant amounts distributed under paragraph (1) shall, if sufficient applications to justify such amounts are received by the Attorney General, be awarded for purposes described in subsection (a)(9), provided that none of the funds required to be distributed under this paragraph shall decrease or otherwise limit the availability of funds required to be awarded to States or units of local government under paragraph (3). . (b) Prosecution of cold cases Of the amounts made available to the Attorney General under section 2 of the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act of 2000 ( 34 U.S.C. 40701 ) for a DNA Analysis and capacity enhancement program and for other local, State, and Federal forensic activities for the purpose described in section 2 of the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act of 2000 ( 34 U.S.C. 40701 ) under the heading State and local law enforcement assistance under the heading Office of Justice Programs under the heading Department of Justice in fiscal years 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 not less than 5 percent, but not more than 7 percent, of such amounts shall be provided for grants for prosecutors to increase the capacity of State and local prosecution offices to address the cold cases involving violent crime, where suspects have been identified through DNA evidence.