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Pennsylvania House of Representatives
04/23/2024 09:48 AM
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=H&SPick=20170&cosponId=21404
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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda

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House of Representatives
Session of 2017 - 2018 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: December 15, 2016 10:57 AM
From: Representative Brandon P. Neuman
To: All House members
Subject: Untested Rape Kit Legislation
 

In the near future, I will be introducing legislation designed to address the continuing problem of untested rape kits in Pennsylvania.

As you may know, legislation I sponsored last session was signed into law (Act 27 of 2015) by Governor Wolf to amend the Sexual Assault Testing and Evidence Collection Act (Act 165 of 2006) to provide a much-needed methodology for counting rape kits, guidelines for the submission of the kits to be tested, and a three-year timeframe to eliminate the backlog of untested rape kits.

While this legislation has proven to be an excellent first step in addressing the untested rape kit backlog in the commonwealth, the need for more comprehensive measures was uncovered in the Untested Rape Kits special report issued by Auditor General Eugene DePasquale in September 2016.

As a result, I plan to introduce legislation incorporating several of the recommendations outlined in this report, including:

  • Establish a commission of local and state agencies to annually review funding needs and improve communications
  • Establish a hotline for hospitals to call if a rape kit is not picked up within 72 hours
  • Clarify ambiguous language such as “as soon as practical”

    We took a significant step last session by passing the legislation that eventually became Act 27 of 2015. Please join me in bolstering this effort to protect our constituents and help law enforcement address this issue by cosponsoring this important measure.


Introduced as HB1821