Administering Entity
FBI Laboratory
Recent/Pending Legislation
- Debbie Smith Act of 2023 — enacted as Pub. L. 118-72 (signed 2024), reauthorizing the Debbie Smith DNA Backlog Grant Program through FY2029, at up to ~$151 million per year (actual appropriations run lower, e.g., ~$130M in FY2023).
- Carla Walker Act (S. 1890 / H.R. 3591, 2026 – pending) — FGG grant pilot; passed Senate June 2026, pending House.
Arrestees: Yes.
Qualifying Offenses: From individuals who are arrested, facing charges, or convicted, or from non-U.S. persons “detained” under federal authority. The law does not differentiate between felonies and misdemeanors for arrestee collection.
Time of Collection: No legally specified point in time.
Expungement: Upon request to the FBI accompanied by final court order establishing that the charges have been has been dismissed, resulted in an acquittal, or that no charges were filed within the applicable time period.
Statute / Case Law:
34 U.S.C. § 40702 — core federal collection statute (arrestees, detainees, BOP inmates, supervised offenders); § 40702(a)(5) makes refusal to cooperate a Class A misdemeanor
34 U.S.C. § 40703 — D.C. offenders; “qualifying D.C. offenses” are designated by the D.C. government (implemented at D.C. Code § 22-4151)
10 U.S.C. § 1565 — military: “qualifying military offenses” are any UCMJ offense punishable by more than one year’s confinement, plus other offenses the Secretary of Defense designates as comparable to qualifying federal offenses
28 C.F.R. § 28.12 — implementing regulation extending collection to all federal arrestees
18 U.S.C. § 3142(b), (c)(1)(A) — pretrial release
18 U.S.C. § 3563(a)(9) — probation
18 U.S.C. § 3583(d) — supervised release
18 U.S.C. § 4209(a) — parole (old-law only: §§ 4201–4218 were repealed by the Sentencing Reform Act (Pub. L. 98-473), effective Nov. 1, 1987, and survive only for offenders whose offenses predate that date under a savings clause currently extended through Jan. 30, 2031; not operative for anyone sentenced under current law)
34 U.S.C. § 12592 — CODIS index authorization; § 12592(d) requires the FBI to expunge arrestee profiles where the charge is dismissed/acquitted and convict profiles where the conviction is overturned
34 U.S.C. § 12592(b)(3) and 34 U.S.C. § 12593 — disclosure/access restrictions (§ 12592(b)(3)) and criminal penalties for misuse (§ 12593). (Note: § 40702(c) is the definitions subsection and does not govern disclosure.)
Convicted Offender: Yes.
Qualifying Offenses: Specific enumerated offenses:
- Any felony;
- Any offense under chapter 109A of title 18 (sexual abuse offenses);
- Any crime of violence (which reaches some misdemeanors) as defined in Section 16 of title 18; and
- Any attempt or conspiracy to commit the preceding crimes, even if not a felony.
Time of Collection: No legally specified point in time.
Expungement: Upon request to the FBI accompanied by final court order establishing that the conviction has been overturned.
Statute / Case Law: See above.
Legislative History
The below legislation changed the national index (§ 12592), the quality-assurance standards (§ 12591), and/or the federal DNA collection authority (§ 40702).
- 1994 — H.R. 3355 → Pub. L. 103-322, DNA Identification Act of 1994
Created the national DNA index (NDIS/CODIS) at § 12592 and the quality-assurance/proficiency-testing framework at § 12591. - 1999 — H.R. 3194 → Pub. L. 106-113 (within Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2000)
Added § 12592(a)(4) allowing samples from relatives of missing persons — the root of the missing-persons/family-reference indexes. - 2000 — H.R. 4640 → Pub. L. 106-546, DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act of 2000
Created the federal collection statute (§ 40702) for convicted federal offenders; added Secretary of Defense authority and revised proficiency-testing language. - 2001 — H.R. 3162 → Pub. L. 107-56, USA PATRIOT Act
Expanded § 40702’s “qualifying Federal offense” definition (including terrorism-related crimes). - 2004 — H.R. 5107 → Pub. L. 108-405, Justice for All Act of 2004 (also appears in List 2)
Restructured § 12592 to reach arrestees/other persons, broadened qualifying offenses in § 40702 to essentially “any felony,” and added expungement provisions. - 2006 (Jan.) — H.R. 3402 → Pub. L. 109-162, DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005 (originated as S. 1606)
Authorized federal arrestee collection, extended authority to the AG and probation officers, and set the per-charge certified-court-order expungement rule. - 2006 (Jul.) — H.R. 4472 → Pub. L. 109-248, Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006
Refined § 40702 collection to persons “arrested, facing charges, or convicted.” - 2017 — H.R. 510 → Pub. L. 115-50, Rapid DNA Act of 2017
Amended §§ 12591, 12592, and 40702 to authorize FBI-approved Rapid DNA instruments and their results into CODIS. - 2022 — H.R. 5961 → Pub. L. 117-286 (Title 5 recodification)
Non-substantive conforming cross-reference fix to § 12591(b)(2).
The below legislation created, reauthorized, or funded the Debbie Smith DNA Backlog Grant Program (§ 40701) and related collection grants, rather than amending the index statute itself.
- 2004 — H.R. 5107 → Pub. L. 108-405, Justice for All Act of 2004 (also appears in List 1)
Carried the Debbie Smith Act of 2004, formally establishing the DNA backlog grant program (plus the DNA Sexual Assault Justice Act and Kirk Bloodsworth post-conviction testing program). - 2008 — H.R. 5057 → Pub. L. 110-360, Debbie Smith Reauthorization Act of 2008
First reauthorization of the grant program. - 2013 (Jan.) — H.R. 6014 → Pub. L. 112-253, Katie Sepich Enhanced DNA Collection Act of 2012
Created dedicated grant funding to help states implement arrestee DNA collection. - 2014 — H.R. 4323 → Pub. L. 113-182, Debbie Smith Reauthorization Act of 2014
Reauthorized the grant program. - 2016 — S. 2577 → Pub. L. 114-324, Justice for All Reauthorization Act of 2016
Reauthorized the Justice for All suite of DNA/forensic grant programs. - 2019 — S. 820 → Pub. L. 116-104, Debbie Smith Act of 2019
Reauthorized the grant program. - 2024 — H.R. 1105 (companion S. 499) → Pub. L. 118-72, Debbie Smith Act of 2023
Most recent reauthorization, extending the program through FY2029 (signed July 30, 2024). - Related — 2013 — S. 47 → Pub. L. 113-4, SAFER Act of 2013 (within the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013)
Added sexual-assault-kit audit requirements and funding — a related forensic-DNA funding measure sitting alongside the Debbie Smith program.
Administering Entity: The FBI Laboratory operates NDIS and sets the Quality Assurance Standards under § 12591.
CODIS Structure and Indexes: CODIS runs on three tiers — LDIS (local), SDIS (state), and NDIS (national). NDIS holds separate indexes for offenders, arrestees, forensic (crime-scene) profiles, missing persons, unidentified human remains, and relatives of missing persons.
Missing Persons / Non-Criminal Index: The missing-persons and unidentified-remains indexes are authorized under 34 U.S.C. § 12592.
- The Rapid DNA Act of 2017 (Pub. L. 115-50, signed Aug. 18, 2017) is the controlling federal law. It amended the DNA Identification Act (34 U.S.C. § 12592) to let the FBI Director issue standards and procedures for Rapid DNA instruments and to permit arrestee Rapid DNA results generated at booking stations to be uploaded into CODIS under FBI-approved procedures. Operational rollout is governed by the FBI’s Rapid DNA program and guidance.
- Casework Rapid DNA uploads to CODIS are authorized under the DNA Identification Act, which permits “analyses of DNA samples recovered from crime scenes” in the national index (34 U.S.C. § 12592(a)(2)) and empowers the FBI Director to set the standards and procedures governing how Rapid DNA instruments may feed CODIS (34 U.S.C. §§ 12592(b)(2), 12591(a)(5)). Acting under that delegated authority, the FBI issued Quality Assurance Standards and NDIS procedures—effective July 1, 2025—that make crime-scene Rapid DNA results CODIS-eligible only when the work is performed in an ISO/IEC 17025-accredited CODIS laboratory using an NDIS-approved cartridge, with interpretation and review by qualified laboratory personnel before upload. That mandatory human review under laboratory supervision is what separates casework Rapid DNA from the hands-free booking-station model used for arrestee reference samples, and it is why casework uploads became operational only once these standards were in place and a forensic cartridge was NDIS-approved—not upon passage of the Rapid DNA Act of 2017.
- No federal statute regulating FGG.
- The only major federal guidance is the DOJ Interim Policy on Forensic Genetic Genealogical DNA Analysis and Searching, effective November 1, 2019. It is internal DOJ guidance (not binding law) and applies to federal cases and federally funded work.
- Key limits: FGG is reserved for unsolved violent crimes and unidentified-remains cases; agencies must first upload to CODIS and exhaust it; only genealogy services that give explicit notice of law-enforcement use may be searched; informed consent is generally required for reference samples; and no arrest may rest solely on a genetic association — STR confirmation is mandatory.
- Pending Legislation: The Carla Walker Act (S. 1890 / H.R. 3591, 119th Congress – pending) would let existing DOJ grant funds support FGG for cold cases through a pilot program.
- It passed the Senate on June 10, 2026 and is pending in the House. It is the most significant federal legislation embracing (rather than restricting) FGG.
- Generally, the topic is sometimes addressed programmatically through DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, whose Collecting Lawfully Owed DNA resources document the problem and state fixes (e.g., Michigan collecting ~5,000 owed inmate samples, linking to 74 unsolved crimes).
- Federal funding to audit and collect owed samples flows through the DNA Capacity Enhancement for Backlog Reduction (CEBR) program, which is anchored in the Debbie Smith Act authorization.
- No apparent legislation or program.