The House on Tuesday gave initial approval to a bill by Dallas lawmaker Victoria Neave that would tackle the state's rape kit backlog by creating a timeline for testing new kits and mandating an audit to determine the number, status and location of all rape kits in the state.
The bill was approved 145-0. It must be voted on by the House one more time before heading to the Senate.
"This bill is for all the women who have waited for years for justice, for all the women who pursued justice and were not believed, for all the women whose rape kits sat untested," Neave said. "Sexual violence pays no mind to party, to wealth, to age or to color. Today we have an opportunity to say no more. Not one more rape kit untested, lost or destroyed. Not one more shot at justice left untested."
