A couple years ago, two Texas Republicans —  Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in the Senate and by Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) in the House — introduced a common sense bill called The Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Registry Act, also known as the SAFER Act of 2012.  It would have reallocated $117 million to help make a dent in the nationwide backlog of untested “rape kits,” which contain forensic evidence collected after sexual assaults that can help identify perpetrators.

Why?  Because — incredibly — 400,000 untested kits sitting in labs around the country — the DNA swabs, hair, photographs, and detailed information gathered from victims of sexual assault and used as evidence for the prosecution to convict rapists — have never been tested. Testing kits can be expensive, and in many jurisdictions, a lack of funds has resulted in kits being consigned to dusty shelves, stored in abandoned police warehouses, or stowed away in forensic labs—sometimes for years. As a result, survivors may never see their rapists prosecuted, and repeat offenders continue to commit crimes.

Both parties were behind the bill (yes, it can happen), except for tea party politicians who tried to derail it.  Fortunately, they failed.

The bill passed and was signed into law (except the funding is down to $41 million).  And beginning last week….

…the Department of Justice began accepting applications from states, counties, and municipalities that want to use the federal dollars to tackle their rape kit backlogs. Officials in Baltimore, Milwaukee, Detroit, Memphis, Cleveland, and Houston tell Mother Jones that they’re planning on applying for some of the funds. “The grant shows an investment on all levels, national to local,” says Doug McGowen, a coordinator in the sexual assault response unit in Memphis, Tennessee.

These types of grants have worked in the past:

In 2011, Houston received a grant from the National Institute of Justice, a research branch of the Department of Justice that has distributed millions of dollars to cities over the past 12 years to eliminate backlogs. As of February, Houston had cleared its entire backlog of rape kits.

There are other success stories. Kym Worthy, the chief prosecutor of Wayne County, Michigan, discovered 11,341 untested rape kits in 2009 in a foreclosed police evidence warehouse. Since then, she’s secured millions of dollars from the federal government, the state of Michigan, and independent advocacy groups to test 2,000 kits as of last January. Testing in Detroit revealed 760 DNA matches in the criminal database. The Prosecutor’s Office identified 188 potential serial rapists and obtained 14 convictions across 23 states and the District of Columbia.

I don’t know how the statute of limitations effects accusations of rape — I’m sure it varies from state to state — but as the saying goes, justice delayed is justice denied.  It’s a travesty that hundreds of thousands of women have taken the first step — using a rape kit — only to have those tests sit on the shelves collecting dust and never being analyzed.  Hope this starts to change.

For more information, go here.

UPDATE:  In North Carolina, the amount of the backlog — or even if there is one — is unknown.  There was a backlog at one point, and the state attempted to address it back in 2006.

RELATED:  Speaking of rape, congressional Republicans are adding language to an anti-sex trafficking bill, the result meaning that children trafficked for sex work will have a harder time getting an abortion should the become rape victims:

Republicans in Congress claim the anti-abortion language that is threatening to sink an otherwise uncontroversial sex trafficking bill is the same innocuous provision that Democrats have routinely approved in spending bills. Even the White House this week declined to say that President Barack Obama would veto the bill with the abortion restrictions in it, suggesting it’s a poison pill the administration might be willing to swallow.

The anti-abortion provision would renew a restriction that prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for abortions, except in cases of rape or incest, or if the life of the mother is in danger, and would extend the same restrictions to the compensation funds paid to victims of human trafficking. This means that child sex trafficking survivors who have become pregnant from rape would be forced to jump through numerous extra legal and administrative hoops in order to prove they were raped so they can use their victims’ compensation funds to help pay for their abortion. Often, these victims are young, have endured multiple rapes per day, and are not prepared to confront a deeply confusing and inconsistent legal system.

Ugh