S. 3250 (112th): SAFER Act of 2012

Introduced:
May 24, 2012 (112th Congress, 2011–2013)
Sponsor:
Sen. John Cornyn [R-TX]
Status:
At President
See Instead:
This bill was re-introduced as S. 80 on Jan 23, 2013. See S. 80 for current action on this subject.

The bill’s title was written by the bill’s sponsor. S. stands for Senate bill.

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Status

This bill was passed by Congress on January 2, 2013 but was not enacted before the end of its Congressional session. (It is possible this bill is waiting for the signature of the President.)

Progress
Introduced May 24, 2012
Referred to Committee May 24, 2012
Reported by Committee Sep 20, 2012
Passed Senate Dec 30, 2012
Passed House Jan 02, 2013
Cosponsors
12 cosponsors (8D, 4R) (show)
Committees

Senate Judiciary

The committee chair determines whether a bill will move past the committee stage.

Full Title

To amend the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act of 2000 to provide for Debbie Smith grants for auditing sexual assault evidence backlogs, and for other purposes.

Summary

No summaries available.

Text

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Last updated Jan 02, 2013.
22 pages

Primary Source

View on THOMAS (The Library of Congress)

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Citation

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GovTrack’s Bill Summary

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Library of Congress Summary

The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.

5/24/2012--Introduced.
Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Registry Act of 2012 or the SAFER Act of 2012 - Amends the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act of 2000 to authorize the Attorney General to make Debbie Smith grants under such Act to states or local governments to conduct audits of samples of sexual assault evidence that are awaiting testing, provided such government submits an audit plan that includes a good-faith estimate of the number of such samples.
Requires 7% of Debbie Smith grant funds distributed in FY2013-FY2017 to be awarded for such purpose if sufficient applications are received, provided such award doesn't decrease funds for other distribution requirements.
Requires the Attorney General to establish a Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Registry that:
(1) allows state and local governments to enter specified information about samples of sexual assault evidence in their possession that are awaiting testing, and
(2) tracks the testing and processing of such samples.
Requires a government:
(1) to complete a funded audit and enter such information about the sample into the Registry within one year after receiving a grant under this Act,
(2) within 21 days after receiving a sample that was not in such government's possession at the time of such audit, to enter information about such sample into the Registry,
(3) to update the status of a sample within 30 days after any change, and
(4) to assign each sample a unique numeric or alphanumeric identifier.
Exempts from such Registry-requirements samples that are not considered criminal evidence or that relate to a sexual assault for which the prosecution of each perpetrator is barred by a statute of limitations.
Requires the Attorney General to make publicly available on a website aggregate non-individualized and non-personally identifying data compiled from information required to be entered into the Registry, to allow for comparison of backlog data by state and local governments.
Requires, for each fiscal year through FY2017, not less than:
(1) 40% of Debbie Smith grant amounts to be awarded to carry out DNA analyses of samples from crime scenes for inclusion in the Combined DNA Index System, and
(2) 75% of grant amounts be awarded for a combination of that purpose and to increase the capacity of state or local government laboratories to carry out DNA analyses.

House Republican Conference Summary

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No summary available.

House Democratic Caucus Summary

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The bill contains the following citations to other parts of U.S. law:

United States Code

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