Blake Moore: “This is the final amendment of this bill. This amendment will not kill the bill nor will it merely send it back to…”

“This is the final amendment of this bill. This amendment will not kill the bill nor will it merely send it back to committee, but rather, if adopted, the bill will immediately proceed to final passage as amended. Mr. Speaker, this motion to recommit is straightforward and simple. It would increase funding for three critical priorities: first, our chronically underfunded Violence Against Women Act programs; second, for grants to process the backlog on rape kits; and, third, for our Community Oriented Policing Services, COPS, grants program, which was slashed deeply in the appropriations bill before us tonight. Now, given the limited time that I have and the late hour that I have to discuss all these issues, I just want to focus my remarks on one of the Nation's staggering backlogs that we haven't talked about. We have talked, and importantly, about the backlog at the Veterans Administration, but we have been silent about the backlog of the sexual assault kits that have not been analyzed. We have not seen a similar amount of attention paid to the crisis in these rape kits that have been backlogged. We have all heard these harrowing tales from our communities from young women and men who have waited so long for justice--and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited some more. These victims have not only endured the initial assault, but they have also endured an invasive exam to collect DNA shortly after the attack. Mr.…”