This year is off to a busy start for RAINN's Public Policy Department. Here’s what we’re working on:

• RAINN is partnering with the National Center for Victims and Crime and Natasha’s Justice Project to encourage states to address their backlog of untested DNA evidence. The Rape Kit Action Project is calling on state legislators to inventory unsubmitted sexual assault evidence kits and devise a policy for prompt testing going forward. Legislators in Oklahoma and Virginia have already taken action and introduced bills, and policymakers in nearly a dozen other states are considering doing so.

• President Obama announced the formation of a task force to combat sexual assault on college campuses. Administration officials will have 90 days to make recommendations on preventing and responding to college sexual assaults. The administration also released a report of its initiatives against sexual violence: Rape and Sexual Assault: A Renewed Call to Action.

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Visit RAINN’s Action Center to encourage Congress to pass the Justice for All Act, which renews the Debbie Smith DNA Backlog Grant Program. If Congress doesn’t act soon, the Debbie Smith Act will expire and rape-kit testing could be further slowed, delaying justice.

Join the conversation: #ActWithRAINN on Facebook and Twitter.