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Title 34, NavyRelease 119-110

§12591 Quality Assurance and Proficiency Testing Standards

Title 34 › Subtitle I — Comprehensive Acts › CHAPTER 121 — VIOLENT CRIME CONTROL AND LAW ENFORCEMENT › SUBCHAPTER VIII — STATE AND LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT › Part A — DNA Identification › § 12591

Last updated Sep 23, 2026|Official source

Summary

Within 180 days after September 13, 1994, the FBI Director must set up an advisory board on DNA quality. The board is picked from nominations by the head of the National Academy of Sciences and crime lab professional groups. It must include scientists from state, local, and private forensic labs, molecular and population geneticists who do not work for forensic labs, and a representative from the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The board must write and update recommended quality and proficiency testing standards for DNA work. After looking at those recommendations, the FBI Director must issue and update the official standards. The standards must say what quality checks and proficiency tests are needed for different DNA methods and include a way to grade lab performance. Until the board makes recommendations and the Director acts, the existing technical working group DNA guidelines count as the Director’s standards. The FBI Director must also issue rules for Rapid DNA instruments, which are machines that fully automate getting a DNA analysis from a sample. For administration, the board is an FBI advisory board, separate from other FBI boards, and section 1013 of title 5 does not apply to it. The board ends 5 years after the first appointments unless the FBI Director extends it. Within 1 year after the Act takes effect, the National Institute of Justice Director must tell the House and Senate Judiciary Committees whether, by 2 years after September 13, 1994, a blind external proficiency testing program for public and private forensic DNA labs has been set up (or is already available) or is not feasible. A blind external proficiency test is one sent through another agency so it looks like routine evidence to analysts. The Attorney General must make up to $250,000 available in the first fiscal year funds are distributed under this subtitle from funds under part X of Title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to help carry out this work.

Full Legal Text

Title 34, §12591

Navy, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Publication of quality assurance and proficiency testing standards
(1)(A)Not later than 180 days after September 13, 1994, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation shall appoint an advisory board on DNA quality assurance methods from among nominations proposed by the head of the National Academy of Sciences and professional societies of crime laboratory officials.
(B)The advisory board shall include as members scientists from State, local, and private forensic laboratories, molecular geneticists and population geneticists not affiliated with a forensic laboratory, and a representative from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
(C)The advisory board shall develop, and if appropriate, periodically revise, recommended standards for quality assurance, including standards for testing the proficiency of forensic laboratories, and forensic analysts, in conducting analyses of DNA.
(2)The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, after taking into consideration such recommended standards, shall issue (and revise from time to time) standards for quality assurance, including standards for testing the proficiency of forensic laboratories, and forensic analysts, in conducting analyses of DNA.
(3)The standards described in paragraphs (1) and (2) shall specify criteria for quality assurance and proficiency tests to be applied to the various types of DNA analyses used by forensic laboratories. The standards shall also include a system for grading proficiency testing performance to determine whether a laboratory is performing acceptably.
(4)Until such time as the advisory board has made recommendations to the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Director has acted upon those recommendations, the quality assurance guidelines adopted by the technical working group on DNA analysis methods shall be deemed the Director’s standards for purposes of this section.
(5)(A)In addition to issuing standards as provided in paragraphs (1) through (4), the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation shall issue standards and procedures for the use of Rapid DNA instruments and resulting DNA analyses.
(B)In this Act, the term “Rapid DNA instruments” means instrumentation that carries out a fully automated process to derive a DNA analysis from a DNA sample.
(b)Administration of advisory board
(1)For administrative purposes, the advisory board appointed under subsection (a) shall be considered an advisory board to the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
(2)Section 1013 of title 5 shall not apply with respect to the advisory board appointed under subsection (a).
(3)The DNA advisory board established under this section shall be separate and distinct from any other advisory board administered by the FBI, and is to be administered separately.
(4)The board shall cease to exist on the date 5 years after the initial appointments are made to the board, unless the existence of the board is extended by the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
(c)Proficiency testing program
(1)Not later than 1 year after the effective date of this Act, the Director of the National Institute of Justice shall certify to the Committees on the Judiciary of the House and Senate that—
(A)the Institute has entered into a contract with, or made a grant to, an appropriate entity for establishing, or has taken other appropriate action to ensure that there is established, not later than 2 years after September 13, 1994, a blind external proficiency testing program for DNA analyses, which shall be available to public and private laboratories performing forensic DNA analyses;
(B)a blind external proficiency testing program for DNA analyses is already readily available to public and private laboratories performing forensic DNA analyses; or
(C)it is not feasible to have blind external testing for DNA forensic analyses.
(2)As used in this subsection, the term “blind external proficiency test” means a test that is presented to a forensic laboratory through a second agency and appears to the analysts to involve routine evidence.
(3)Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Attorney General shall make available to the Director of the National Institute of Justice during the first fiscal year in which funds are distributed under this subtitle up to $250,000 from the funds available under part X of Title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 [34 U.S.C. 10511 et seq.] to carry out this subsection.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

This Act, referred to in subsec. (a)(5)(B), probably means the DNA Identification Act of 1994, which is subtitle C (§§ 210301–210306) of title XXI of Pub. L. 103–322, Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2065. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see

Short Title

of 1994 Act note set out under section 10101 of this title and Tables. The

Effective Date

of this Act, referred to in subsec. (c)(1), probably means the date of enactment of Pub. L. 103–322, which was approved Sept. 13, 1994. This subtitle, referred to in subsec. (c)(3), is subtitle C (§§ 210301–210306) of title XXI of Pub. L. 103–322, Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2065, known as the DNA Identification Act of 1994. For complete classification of this subtitle to the Code, see

Short Title

of 1994 Act note set out under section 10101 of this title and Tables. The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, referred to in subsec. (c)(3), is Pub. L. 90–351, June 19, 1968, 82 Stat. 197. Part X of title I of the Act is classified generally to subchapter XXIII (§ 10511 et seq.) of chapter 101 of this title. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see

Short Title

of 1968 Act note set out under section 10101 of this title and Tables. Codification Section was formerly classified to section 14131 of Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare, prior to editorial reclassification and renumbering as this section.

Amendments

2022—Subsec. (b)(2). Pub. L. 117–286 substituted “Section 1013 of title 5” for “section 14 of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.)”. 2017—Subsec. (a)(5). Pub. L. 115–50 added par. (5).

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

34 U.S.C. § 12591

Title 34, Navy

Last Updated

Sep 23, 2026

Release point: 119-110