On September 28, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved, by voice vote, S. 1766, the Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Reporting (SAFER) Act of 2017, sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).
The bill would reduce the rape kit backlog—including a “hidden” backlog of kits that were never submitted for testing—by allowing law enforcement to use funding to conduct audits of all forensic evidence in their possession, with the goal of increasing the number of sexual assault cases heard.
