The Washington Post

Across the country, decades’ worth of rape kits are finally being tested, but no one can agree on what to do next. A story of good intentions—and government blunders.

If you’ve ever watched even one episode of “SVU,” you can understand why Hargitay, who’s won both Emmy and Golden Globe awards for her portrayal of Det. Benson, has turned activist for the victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. Her latest effort, aimed “at getting the conversation started” about these issues that often “are swept under the carpet,” ironically relies on silence and raw emotion rather than on cleverly scripted words.

Sometimes there just aren’t any words.

Under the program announced in New York, $35 million in civil forfeiture assets will be made available to localities and states across the country to test some 70,000 rape kits, which are a collection of physical evidence painstakingly taken from victims of sexual assault.

Congress is poised to approve $41 million sought by the Obama administration to examine untested DNA evidence collected from rape victims and held by state and local police across the country.

His voice thick with emotion, Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday again toured the National Domestic Violence Hotline with Mariska Hargitay.

Images from the Joyful Heart Foundation's 2013 Joyful Revolution Gala

Biden jokes with Mariska Hargitay, a star of one of the “Law & Order” TV shows, who has been vocal against domestic violence, before giving his speech.

Mariska Hargitay, better known as “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” detective Olivia Benson, is the human intersection of life and art.

Vice President Biden, in Rockville Wednesday to announce a new initiative to curb domestic violence, got personal as he described the effort to eliminate what he called “a blight on the nation’s conscience.”