The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee this month invited Scott Berkowitz, RAINN’s president, Dr. Kaye Whitley, director of the Pentagon’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, and other experts to testify about the current state of efforts to help military service members and veterans who have been victims of sexual violence. 

The hearing, held jointly by two subcommittees, was chaired by Reps. John Hall (D-NY) and Michael Michaud (D-ME) along with the panels’ ranking members, Reps. Henry Brown (R-SC) and Doug Lamborn (R-CO). Witnesses also discussed programs to prevent attacks and increase the number of prosecutions.

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“After 25 years in professional wrestling, I really thought I knew pain,” Mick Foley said before a crowd of Army trainees and their commanders. “I was wrong. Every week on the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline, I bear witness to the type of pain I can only guess at.”

Before hundreds of soldiers in training at Fort Lee in Virginia, Foley, a former WWE world champion, and now a member of RAINN’s National Leadership Council and volunteer for the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline, spoke of the dire mental health effects — such as PTSD, depression, substance abuse, and eating disorders — that victims of sexual assault often face.

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Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), actress Mariska Hargitay and other witnesses this month updated the House Judiciary Committee on the continuing national backlog of untested DNA evidence. Maloney, the original sponsor of the Debbie Smith Act, which has helped police test evidence from thousands of open rape cases, led off the hearing by urging Congress to help eliminate the backlog, once and for all.

The hearing, led by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), chairman of the crime subcommittee, was emotional at times as witnesses talked about the frustration and fear that victims experience, knowing that their rapists remain free while the evidence sits untested. Witness Valerie Neumann, who was raped on her birthday three years ago, observed that, “Testing a rape kit is so important because it can identify an assailant, confirm a suspect’s contact with a victim, corroborate a victim’s account of the crime — especially useful in acquaintance rapes — connect apparently unrelated crimes, and exonerate innocent suspects.”

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Katie Sepich Enhanced DNA Collection Act of 2010 to maximize the potential of forensic DNA to solve and prevent violent crimes. “Katie’s Law” is named after Katie Sepich, a 22-year old college student who was brutally raped and murdered in Las Cruces, New Mexico. If New Mexico had required a DNA sample to be taken upon arrest, Katie’s killer would have been caught three months after the murder when the murderer was arrested for another predatory crime. Instead it took three long years.

Introduced by Rep. Harry Teague (D-NM), “Katie’s Law” provides states incentives to collect a DNA sample from people arrested for felonies, at the same time as they currently collect fingerprints. Currently 22 states collect DNA from at least some people arrested for a felony. Katie’s Law is expected to be introduced in the Senate later this year.

Earlier this month, RAINN representatives met with Pakistani delegates to discuss strategies to fight sexual violence. The Pakistani delegation was in DC for the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program. RAINN staff briefed the Pakistani delegation about the the importance of victim services, such as those provided by the National Sexual Assault Hotline; RAINN’s efforts to increase public awareness about the crime of sexual assault; and the importance of building political support for initiatives to fight rape.