HOUSE BILL NO. 31 "An Act requiring the Department of Public Safety to develop a tracking system and collection and processing protocol for sexual assault examination kits; requiring law enforcement agencies to send sexual assault examination kits for testing within 18 months after collection; requiring an inventory and reports on untested sexual assault examination kits; and providing for an effective date." 10:30:02 AM REPRESENTATIVE GERAN TARR, SPONSOR, explained that the Committee Substitute (CS) accomplished three things: The bill established mandatory sexual assault training for all law enforcement officials. The legislation required a statewide audit to determine the "true" inventory of backlogged untested sexual examination kits. Third, HB 31 established a "gold standard" in reporting options for sexual assault. 10:31:30 AM Co-Chair Foster MOVED to ADOPT Amendment 1. Page 1, line 9, following "and": Insert "at least 12 hours of instruction regarding" Page 1, line 9, following "assault": Insert ":1." Page 3, lines 2 - 3: Delete "16 years of age or older" Insert "18 years of age or older and not a vulnerable adult" Page 3, following line 24: Insert a new bill section to read: "* Sec. 5. AS 18.68.020 is amended by adding a new subsection to read: (c) In this section, "vulnerable adult" has the meaning given in AS 47.24.900." 15 Renumber the following bill sections accordingly. 17 Page 4, line 21: Delete "Section 5" Insert "Section 6" 21 Page 4, line 22: Delete "sec. 6" Insert "sec. 7" Representative Wilson OBJECTED for the purpose of discussion. Representative Tarr spoke to the amendment. She explained that the amendment added more specificity to the bill and contained three components. The first provision delineated that the training was 12 hours for sexual assault and 12 hours for domestic violence. The Department of Public Safety (DPS) supported the amount of training and the fiscal note had factored in the 12-hour trainings. She indicated that existing statute called for mandatory reporting of sexual assault for anyone under the age of 18, which was considered sexual abuse of a minor, and for vulnerable adults. The second piece of the amendment made age changes to clarify and conform to the existing statute. Representative Wilson cited AS 47.24.900 regarding the definition of vulnerable adults. She wondered who made the determination that an individual was a vulnerable adult in sexual assault cases. She asked for additional clarification for when the classification of vulnerable was established. Representative Tarr answered that a vulnerable adult would have already been established by a court process before the assault occurred. 10:34:20 AM Representative Wilson asked about the other change regarding a minimum of 12 hours of instruction. She wondered whether the amendment clarified that the 12-hour requirement was mandated for both domestic violence and sexual assault. Representative Tarr responded affirmatively. Co-Chair Seaton asked whether the total hours of training were 24 hours. Representative Tarr answered affirmatively. Representative Wilson WITHDREW her OBJECTION. There being NO OBJECTION, Amendment 1 was ADOPTED. Vice-Chair Gara reviewed the new zero fiscal note from the Department of Public Safety. Representative Wilson asked about the 24 hours. She wondered whether the state already offered the training. 10:36:46 AM KELLY HOWELL, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY, indicated that the training was already being provided by the Public Safety training academy. 10:37:16 AM Vice-Chair Gara MOVED to report CSHB 31(FIN) out of Committee as amended with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal note. There being NO OBJECTION, it was so ordered. CSHB 31(FIN) was REPORTED out of committee with a "do pass" recommendation and with a new zero fiscal note by the House Finance Committee for the Department of Public Safety. Co-Chair Foster reviewed the agenda for the following meeting.