PAUL COVERDELL FORENSIC SCIENCES IMPROVEMENT GRANTS.

SEC. 5001. PAUL COVERDELL FORENSIC SCIENCES IMPROVEMENT GRANTS. (a) State Applications.—Section 503(a)(13)(A)(iii) of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3753(a)(13)(A)(iii)) is amended by striking “or the National Association of Medical Examiners,” and inserting “, the National Association of Medical Examiners, or any other nonprofit, professional organization that may be recognized within the forensic science community as competent to award such accreditation,”. (b) Forensic Sciences Improvement Grants.—Part BB of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3797j et seq.) is amended— (1) in section 2801, by inserting after “States” the following: “ and units of local government”; (2) in section 2802— (A) in the matter before paragraph (1), by inserting “or unit of local government” after “State”; (B) in paragraph (1), to read as follows: “(1) a certification that the State or unit of local government has developed a plan for forensic science laboratories under a program described in section 2804(a), and a specific description of the manner in which the grant will be used to carry out that plan;”; (C) in paragraph (2), by inserting “or appropriate certifying bodies” before the semicolon; and 116 STAT. 1814 (D) in paragraph (3), by inserting “for a State or local plan” after “program”; (3) in section 2803(a)(2), by striking “to States with” and all that follows through the period and inserting “for competitive awards to States and units of local government. In making awards under this part, the Attorney General shall consider the average annual number of part 1 violent crimes reported by each State to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the 3 most recent calendar years for which data is available and consider the existing resources and current needs of the potential grant recipient.”; (4) in section 2804— (A) in subsection (a), by inserting “or unit of local government” after “A State”; and (B) in subsection (c)(1), by inserting “(including grants received by units of local government within a State)” after “under this part”; and (5) in section 2806(a)— (A) in the matter before paragraph (1), by inserting “or unit of local government” after “each State”; and (B) in paragraph (1), by inserting before the semicolon the following: “, which shall include a comparison of pregrant and post-grant forensic science capabilities” (C) in paragraph (2), by striking “and” at the end; (D) by redesignating paragraph (3) as paragraph (4); and (E) by inserting after paragraph (2) the following: “(3) an identification of the number and type of cases currently accepted by the laboratory; and”.