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A bill to require the testing of all rape kits passed its next-to-last step on Monday. But a big question remains whether lawmakers also will fund the $2.4 million that it would require for new lab technicians to implement.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 4-0 to approve HB200, and sent it to the full Senate for consideration. It previously passed the House 69-0.

Rep. Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, sponsored the bill, which would give Utah's law enforcement agencies 30 days to submit rape kits to the Utah Crime Lab after collection, and mandate that they be processed as possible.

It would also create a tracking system for rape kits and trauma-sensitivity training for Utah law enforcement.

Jay Henry, director of the Utah Crime Lab, said the state has been funding testing of about 400 rape kits a year. But last year, 968 kits were submitted as more police departments started sending in all kits they collect.

Legislative analysts figure an extra $2.4 million a year is needed for to hire 17 additional technicians to keep up with higher demand.

Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, said the budget is so tight this year that he wonders how to cover that amount, and openly doubted it will be fully funded in the budget process.

But Senate Minority Leader Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake City, argued "this has to be a top priority," and said, "Justice is not being met appropriately."

Besides falling behind on current cases, the state is also working through a backlog of old kits that often had been sitting for years in evidence rooms around the state.

Henry said the state has processed about half of the 2,760 kits identified last year, with the help of grants. He said the lab expects to finish that project next year.

In an earlier House hearing, several rape victims testified that they waited 10 years or more with their kits yet to be tested, as rapists went unprosecuted.

Henry said that of the older-backlog kits, suspect DNA information in each case has been entered into the Combined DNA Index System, a federal database of DNA evidence. In those cases, they have seen identification hits in CODIS 134 times, he said