Political Quotes

“Madam President, over the last few months, I have spoken at length on the Senate floor about a bill I introduced earlier this year to reauthorize the Debbie Smith Act--legislation to help us end the nationwide rape kit backlog. This legislation carries the name of a fierce and courageous woman--a sexual assault survivor whose advocacy was born of her personal experience. Three decades ago, Debbie Smith was taken from her home and taken to a wooded area where she was robbed and raped by an unknown attacker. She reported the crime to police and went to the emergency room for a forensic exam, but because of the rape kit backlog, she had to wait 6\1/2\ years before finally receiving the call that her attacker had been identified through a DNA test. During that time, she lived in constant fear, wondering who he was, where he was, and whether he would return to hurt her again. Identifying offenders through DNA evidence is critical to providing not only justice but peace of mind for those assaulted and delivering justice to victims, and, yes, even exonerating the innocent. The power of DNA testing is such that it can essentially rule out people from being the alleged assailant or the actual assailant. So this is really important for a number of reasons. Sharing this information across State lines through the Federal system can help us identify repeat offenders who would otherwise go undetected.…”