June 22, 2025
Rider 29 of the Trusteed Programs Within the Office of the Governor bill pattern governs grants for the testing of forensic evidence. Subsection b. states the legislature's intent that the Office of the Governor provide grants reimbursing local law enforcement, district attorneys, medical examiners and coroners for costs associated with forensic genetic genealogical DNA analysis, and designates $1,000,000 from the General Revenue Fund in each fiscal year of the 2026-27 biennium for that purpose, included in the amounts appropriated in Strategy B.1.1, Criminal Justice. Funds specified for this purpose may not be expended for any other purpose. The rider text sets no CODIS-upload requirement, accreditation standard or marker minimum; conditions of that kind appear in the Office of the Governor's grant solicitations rather than in the act. The forensic genetic genealogy track is new to the 2026-27 biennium. The corresponding provision in the 2024-25 act, Article I Rider 32, funded district attorney forensic evidence testing alone at $1,000,000 per year and made no reference to genealogy. Subsection a. of Rider 29 continues that district attorney reimbursement at the same amount, separately from the genealogy funding.