[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4904 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 4904

 To amend the Victims of Crime Act of 1984 to ensure crime victims are 
  not denied compensation because of rape kit backlogs, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           November 17, 2020

Ms. Cortez Masto (for herself and Mr. Toomey) introduced the following 
    bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the 
                               Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Victims of Crime Act of 1984 to ensure crime victims are 
  not denied compensation because of rape kit backlogs, 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 ``Fairness for Rape Kit Backlog 
Survivors Act of 2020''.

SEC. 2. CRIME VICTIM COMPENSATION.

    Section 1403(b) of the Victims of Crime Act of 1984 (34 U.S.C. 
20102(b)) is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (8), by striking ``and'' at the end;
            (2) by redesignating paragraph (9) as paragraph (10); and
            (3) by inserting after paragraph (8) the following:
            ``(9) beginning not later than 3 years after the date of 
        enactment of this paragraph, such program--
                    ``(A) provides a waiver for any application filing 
                deadline imposed by the program for a crime victim if--
                            ``(i) the crime victim is otherwise 
                        eligible for compensation; and
                            ``(ii) the delay in filing the application 
                        was a result of a delay in the testing or a 
                        delay in the DNA profile matching from a sexual 
                        assault forensic examination kit or biological 
                        material collected as evidence related to a 
                        sexual offense; and
                    ``(B) does not require the crime victim to undergo 
                an appeals process to have the application of the crime 
                victim considered for a filing deadline waiver under 
                subparagraph (A); and''.
                                 <all>