That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that State legislatures should pass sexual assault kit reform legislation that requires—
the State to establish collaborations with State and local sexual assault advocates, sexual assault nurse examiners, law enforcement officers, and others to ensure that—
a sexual assault advocate is made available to sexual assault survivors upon a report to law enforcement, during a sexual assault forensic exam, and for ongoing support and services;
sexual assault survivors are notified of their rights and kit results in a trauma-informed manner, in collaboration with sexual assault advocates; and
policies and procedures pertaining to sexual assault kit examinations, testing, and notification are victim-centered and developed collaboratively across victim advocacy, medical, law enforcement, and other sexual assault response team partners;
the State to conduct an annual statewide audit to inventory all untested sexual assault kits with the goal of understanding the scope of the problem and to monitor progress in eliminating the backlog of previously unsubmitted and untested kits;
law enforcement agencies to submit all previously untested sexual assault kits to a laboratory and mandates that the laboratory test these kits for DNA within a specific timeframe and upload the results into appropriate State and Federal databases;
law enforcement agencies to promptly submit all newly collected kits that have been released for testing to the laboratory and mandates that the laboratory test these kits for DNA within a specific timeframe and upload the results into appropriate State and Federal databases;
the State to develop a sexual assault kit tracking system that includes a mechanism for survivors to check the status of their kits through the process, from collection to analysis, and ensure that hospitals, law enforcement, and laboratories are using the same system to track sexual assault kits;
the State to have the appropriate mechanisms to notify survivors about their right to know the status and location of their sexual assault kits and their case; and
the State to contribute appropriate and sustainable funding to address issues related to the unsubmitted and untested sexual assault kit backlog, including trauma-informed support services for survivors.