Bill On Testing Sexual Assault Kits Divides Wisconsin Lawmakers

The battle over how to prevent a future backlog of untested sexual assault kits started off as a bipartisan effort with a bill that passed the state Senate in October.

But the issue has taken a sharp turn with a new proposal being fast-tracked in the Assembly that includes provisions on immigration and school choice.

During a Wednesday hearing at the state Capitol before the Assembly’s health committee, Democrats called those provisions “poison pills.” They said they were designed to kill a bill pushed by the attorney general who campaigned on getting rid of the state’s backlog on untested sexual assault kits.

Republican lawmakers who supported the original bipartisan legislation are now backing the expanded bill. They say allowing victims of sexual assault to transfer schools under the choice program helps prevent further trauma and may encourage more lawmakers to support the more recent bill.

“We can not apply a policy purity (test) because if we want it to become law, we have to work with other people. In order to get it before this committee, some elements needed to be changed,” said Rep. David Steffen, R-Green Bay, the author of AB844.

But opponents say the Republican proposal isn’t designed to get legislation on the books for how quickly sexual assault kits have to be tested, and doesn’t contain funding to do it.

“This bill is a mess,” Attorney General Josh Kaul testified Wednesday.

RELATED: Attorney General, GOP Lawmaker Clash Over Sexual Assault Kit Proposal

Prior to the public hearing, Kaul held a press conference with sexual assault survivors and advocacy groups who oppose the new bill. They are concerned that requiring police to report accused assailants to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could have a chilling effect on sexual assault victims who may be hesitant to call police. These concerns were reiterated during the public hearing before lawmakers.

“I ask that you stop playing with the lives and the pain of survivors to pass your agenda,” implored Veronica Figueroa, executive director of UNIDOS, a group working to end domestic violence and sexual assault. “Do your job and support our communities,” she continued.

Steffen characterized either bill as a “step in the right direction” notwithstanding testimony by sexual assault survivors and law enforcement in favor of the original testing legislation.

Earlier the issue came to a head when Kaul clashed with Rep. Joe Sanfelippo, R-New Berlin, who chairs the Assembly Committee on Health. Kaul accused Sanfelippo of stalling the bill Kaul supported.

About 6,000 untested sexual assault kits were discovered in 2014. The backlog was eliminated about four years later without a law that set deadlines for hospitals and local law enforcement for submitting sexual assault kits to the state for testing and storage.