[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 172 (Wednesday, October 25, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6785-S6786]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               SAFER Act

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I know people watching and perhaps reading 
the newspaper, watching cable TV, and listening to talk radio think 
nothing ever happens here in Washington, DC, and they would be wrong. 
Certainly, we can always do better, and I am disappointed we haven't 
been more successful, but there are some measures we can make in the 
right direction in important pieces of legislation that make a very 
profound difference in people's lives.
  Today I want to talk about a problem that, thanks to a bill passed by 
the Senate on Monday, we are helping to solve. This has to do with the 
untested rape kit backlog in our country.
  Years ago, thanks to a courageous woman named Debbie Smith, I became 
a lot better informed about the nature of this problem: rape kits, the 
forensic evidence that is taken in sexual assault cases but which 
remained in evidence lockers in police stations untested or was sent to 
laboratories and never processed. At one point, it was estimated that 
there were as many as 400,000 untested rape kits in our country.
  As the Presiding Officer knows, this is powerful evidence because of 
DNA testing. We can literally almost say with certainty whether there 
is a match between the DNA of a suspect and that in a rape kit. This 
forensic evidence is collected following a sexual assault. Similarly, 
we can decide and determine whether there is no match whatsoever and, 
frankly, exclude somebody who is a potential suspect from being the 
guilty party by using this same powerful forensic evidence.
  It is also important not just to solve the crime at hand but also to 
get sexual predators off the streets because we know this type of 
offender is likely to strike time and time and time again. The experts 
tell us that when opportunities don't provide themselves for sexual 
offenders to go after adults, frequently they will even go after 
children. So this is very important evidence.
  As we know, there is typically a statute of limitations that after a 
period of time a case cannot be prosecuted, but it is really important, 
as I mentioned, to continue to test as many rape kits as we possibly 
can to get serial offenders off the streets and to determine whether 
somebody has been charged or suspected of a crime and is in fact 
innocent.

[[Page S6786]]

  Thanks to courageous people like Debbie Smith, for whom we have named 
the Debbie Smith Act, as well as great bipartisan cooperation in the 
Senate, we have provided funding for the testing of rape kits at the 
State and local level, which has been supplemented by the Texas 
Legislature and other State legislatures.
  In Houston a few years ago, our mayor felt so strongly about this 
that they took this on as a citywide project, with incredible results. 
They found a number of hits of previously unsolved crimes, and they 
were able to bring peace of mind to a lot of people who had been living 
under a cloud of unsolved crime when they processed these unprocessed 
rape kits.
  Nationally, the problem is still big, with as many as 175,000 rape 
kits that still haven't been analyzed, and this is something we need to 
continue to attack. It is down from 400,000 at one point, was the 
estimate, down to 175,000, but that is still unacceptable.

  Victims of sexual assault, scarred by painful memories and physical 
trauma, can't afford to wait for funding that is easier to come by. 
They need their stories to be heard, the evidence to be tested, and the 
results expedited. Federal, State, and local officials owe them those 
things. If we dawdle, those cases go cold, and they are the ones who 
bear the scars and the pain of these unresolved crimes.
  That is why the Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Reporting Act, 
called the SAFER Act, is so important. That is the bill I mentioned a 
moment ago that we passed in the Senate on Monday. It reauthorizes a 
program created in 2013 that has helped law enforcement reduce the 
national rape kit backlog. I thank my friend and colleague, 
Representative Ted Poe over in the House, for sponsoring the House 
version.
  The original legislation increased the amount of funds spent on 
untested kits by 35 percent and allowed 5 to 7 percent of them to be 
used on audits of existing law enforcement programs. These audits, in 
turn, uncovered tens of thousands of untested kits across the country, 
each with evidence that could be used to bring an offender to justice. 
The new bill passed by the Senate this week goes further. It ensures 
that pediatric forensic nurses are available for training so that, once 
they complete it, they are better equipped to respond promptly and 
appropriately to children suffering from abuse.
  Finally, the bill extends the sunset provision of the SAFER Program, 
which will ensure the longevity of a program with a proven history of 
success.
  I am grateful to have a wide range of bipartisan support, including 
the senior Senator from Minnesota, as well as the senior Senators from 
Nevada and Colorado, who are original cosponsors. This is a good 
example of legislation that is bipartisan and that makes progress 
toward solving a very real problem in our country. But, as so often we 
find the case, there is not much reporting on it, much attention paid, 
but it is worth noting here on the Senate floor that bipartisan 
progress on important legislation that helps people's lives become 
better is being done here in the Senate.