[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3087 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3087

   To provide assistance to State and local forensic laboratories in 
analyzing DNA samples from convicted offenders, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 14, 1999

  Mr. Weiner (for himself, Mr. Forbes, Ms. Slaughter, Mr. Walsh, Mr. 
    Sweeney, Mrs. McCarthy of New York, Mrs. Lowey, and Mr. Nadler) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                             the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To provide assistance to State and local forensic laboratories in 
analyzing DNA samples from convicted offenders, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``DNA Backlog Elimination Act''.

 SEC. 2. ELIMINATION OF CONVICTED OFFENDER DNA BACKLOG.

    (a) Development of Plan.--
            (1) In general.--Not later than 45 days after the date of 
        the enactment of this Act, the Director of the Federal Bureau 
        of Investigation, in coordination with the Assistant Attorney 
        General of the Office of Justice Programs of the Department of 
        Justice, and after consultation with representatives of State 
        and local forensic laboratories, shall develop a voluntary plan 
        to assist State and local forensic laboratories in performing 
        DNA analyses of DNA samples collected from convicted offenders 
        and in analyzing all casework evidence for unsolved crimes.
            (2) Objective.--The objective of the plan developed under 
        paragraph (1) shall be to effectively eliminate the backlog of 
        convicted offender DNA samples awaiting analysis in State or 
        local forensic laboratory storage, including samples that need 
        to be reanalyzed using upgraded methods, and to analyze all 
        casework evidence for unsolved crimes in an efficient, 
        expeditious manner that will provide for their entry into the 
        Combined DNA Indexing System (CODIS).
    (b) Plan Conditions.--The plan developed under subsection (a) 
shall--
            (1) require that each laboratory performing DNA analyses 
        satisfy quality assurance standards and utilize state-of-the-
        art testing methods, as set forth by the Director of the 
        Federal Bureau of Investigation, in coordination with the 
        Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Justice Programs of 
        the Department of Justice; and
            (2) require that each DNA sample collected and analyzed be 
        accessible only--
                    (A) to criminal justice agencies for law 
                enforcement identification purposes;
                    (B) in judicial proceedings, if otherwise 
                admissible pursuant to applicable statutes or rules;
                    (C) for criminal defense purposes, to a defendant, 
                who shall have access to samples and analyses performed 
                in connection with the case in which such defendant is 
                charged; or
                    (D) if personally identifiable information is 
                removed, for a population statistics database, for 
                identification research and protocol development 
                purposes, or for quality control purposes.
    (c) Implementation of Plan.--
            (1) In general.--Subject to the availability of 
        appropriations under subsection (d), the Director of the 
        Federal Bureau of Investigation, in coordination with the 
        Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Justice Programs of 
        the Department of Justice, shall implement the plan developed 
        pursuant to subsection (a) with State and local forensic 
        laboratories that elect to participate.
            (2) Consideration of each backlog.--In determining the 
        extent of assistance to be provided to State and local forensic 
        laboratories under this section, the Director of the Federal 
        Bureau of Investigation, in coordination with the Assistant 
        Attorney General of the Office of Justice Programs of the 
        Department of Justice, shall consider the quantity of each 
        State and local forensic laboratory's backlog of convicted 
        offender DNA samples awaiting analysis, including samples that 
        need to be reanalyzed using upgraded methods, and the quantity 
        of casework evidence for unsolved crimes.
    (d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to the Department of Justice to carry out this section 
$30,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2001 and 2002.
                                 <all>