April 26, 2026
Chapter 2024-113 creates the Forensic Investigative Genetic Genealogy Grant Program and funds it within the same act. Section 1 establishes Fla. Stat. s. 943.327; Section 2 appropriates $500,000 in nonrecurring funds from the General Revenue Fund to the Department of Law Enforcement for the program, so no General Appropriations Act line item is involved. The department awards the funds annually to statewide and local law enforcement agencies and medical examiners' offices. Grants may be used to analyze DNA samples collected under applicable legal authority using forensic investigative genetic genealogy methods for solving violent crimes, and to analyze DNA samples of unidentified human remains. Methods must accord with department rule and be compatible with multiple genealogical databases available for law enforcement use, and the statute states that funding is intended for genealogy DNA profiles of 100,000 or more markers. Each recipient must report to the department's executive director within one year of receiving funding, giving the amount received, the number and type of cases pursued, the methods used and the name of any laboratory to which testing was outsourced, the result of the testing, and the time taken to make an identification or to determine that none could be made. The act took effect July 1, 2024.