Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today marks the beginning of National Sexual Assault Awareness Month. It comes at a time when Congress is about ready to take up reauthorization of the Justice For All Act--a law that has improved public safety, strengthened victims' rights, and delivered justice all across this country. I am proud to be the lead Republican sponsor of this bill, and I am even prouder of what it has accomplished and what it will continue to accomplish. Thanks to the Justice For All Act and similar initiatives, law enforcement agencies across America now have greater resources to reduce the rape kit backlog. I might just explain. A rape kit is, as it sounds, a forensic collection of evidence collected at the scene of a sexual assault. Much to our chagrin, we have learned over time that many of these rape kits--this forensic evidence--is not forwarded to a lab for testing and, thus, the DNA of the assailant is not identified. So we realized that local jurisdictions needed more resources and more guidance and more expertise when it came to testing these untested rape kits because of the incredible evidence it provides, both to acquit people who have been falsely accused of crimes, as well as to identify, indict, and convict serial sexual assailants. This is sort of unique in many ways because people who commit rape don't just do it one time. Many times they will do it time and time again until they are caught. Worse yet, this is a crime of opportunity.…”