Sponsors (3)
The bill strengthens survivors' rights and preserves forensic evidence to improve access to justice, but conditions federal grant levels on state adoption—creating implementation costs and funding winners and losers among states.
Sexual-assault survivors (including women and other victims) gain stronger statutory rights to participate in investigations and prosecutions when states adopt protections comparable to the federal law.
Survivors retain access to critical physical and DNA evidence because forensic evidence kits must be preserved for at least 20 years, improving the chances of later investigations and prosecutions.
States that fully align with the federal survivors' rights law receive a larger share (60%) of formula grants, creating a strong incentive to standardize protections and potentially increase funding for survivor services nationwide.
States that do not adopt the federal-standard rights risk receiving smaller federal grant shares, which can reduce funding for victim services and lead to fewer local advocacy, counseling, and support programs—harming survivors, especially in low-income areas.
Tying grant amounts to statutory or regulatory alignment pressures states and localities to change laws or administrative practices, imposing implementation and compliance costs on state and local governments.
Mandating evidence retention for at least 20 years increases storage and administrative costs for law enforcement agencies and forensic custodians.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Ties a formula grant allocation to whether States provide survivors’ rights comparable to federal law and requires forensic evidence kits to be preserved at least 20 years.
Introduced June 3, 2025 by Charles Ernest Grassley · Last progress June 3, 2025
Creates a three-tiered formula for allocating certain federal public-safety grants to States based on whether the State provides sexual-assault survivors the rights equivalent to federal law, and raises the required minimum time that forensic evidence kits must be preserved to at least 20 years. The Attorney General must apply the tiered splits to amounts available under the covered grant subsection and may increase a State’s grant amount if the State meets defined statutory, regulatory, or practice standards verifying survivors’ rights; a State can qualify for only one tier.