U.S. House committee approves Wagner’s bill to reduce rape kit backlog

An effort to reduce the nation’s backlog of sexual assault evidence has taken a step forward. 

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee has approved eastern Missouri Congresswoman Ann Wagner’s bill that would reauthorize federal funding to analyze untested rape kits. 

It would extend the funding through fiscal year 2029 to crime labs in all 50 states, including Missouri. 

According to Wagner, since the program was first enacted in 2004, it has directly supported the analysis of nearly 1.8-million DNA cases, resulting in more than 308-thousand hits in the federal DNA criminal database – representing 56-percent of all DNA matches.