Federal grants fund DNA genealogy searches—with privacy guardrails in place
S. 1890 — Carla Walker Act · Filed by John Cornyn (R-TX) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced May 22, 2025 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill creates two federal grant programs totaling $10 million annually (2027–2031) to help state and local law enforcement, prosecutors, medical examiners, and coroners use forensic genetic genealogy (FGG) — matching crime-scene DNA against public genealogy databases — to solve cold cases and identify remains. Grants fund DNA analysis, equipment, and database searches, but only after traditional DNA databases fail, and only under strict rules: law enforcement must identify itself to genealogy services, cannot arrest based solely on genealogy matches, must seek consent from third parties, and cannot use the data for medical or psychological profiling.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is straightforward: it authorizes federal grants to state and local law enforcement and forensic agencies to conduct forensic genetic genealogy analysis under specified safeguards. The title accurately reflects the substance.
What the text implies
- The bill requires genealogy services to disclose law enforcement access to users and the public, potentially affecting the business model of genealogy companies that have not previously disclosed such use.
- Mandatory reporting requirements (section 3065) create a federal database of FGG outcomes, which may inform future policy on genetic privacy and law enforcement access to genetic data.
The full analysis lists 4 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
state and local law enforcement agencies; state and local prosecutor offices; medical examiner and coroner offices