Committees back DOJ rulemaking on SAVE fund timeframes, add strangulation kit coverage

Shannon Savelle (DOJ) and Shannon Rose (Oregon Sexual Assault Task Force) testified in support of House Bill 2,456, which would authorize the Department of Justice to adopt rules establishing timelines and payment rules for the Sexual Assault Victim Emergency (SAVE) fund and clarify that medical assessments for strangulation will be compensated under ORS 147.035.

Savelle summarized SAVE’s history and caseload: the fund was created in 2004 to standardize payment for forensic exams and related services that had previously been paid unevenly by local law enforcement. She told the committee the DOJ received 767 SAVE applications in 2011 and 1,335 in 2025, and asked the Legislature to permit rulemaking to set timeframes based on best practices so the department can adapt as clinical evidence and survivor needs evolve.

Savelle said the proposed change would allow DOJ to move prescribing timeframe details into rule rather than statute, which DOJ staff portrayed as enabling best‑practice updates; she also clarified that strangulation forensic evidence kits would be paid from the crime victims compensation fund (ORS 147.035) rather than SAVE’s appropriation.

Shannon Rose told the committee that expanding timeframes respects trauma responses and the reality that some survivors need additional time to seek medical forensic care; she argued that broader time windows reduce barriers and avoid retraumatizing survivors who are still processing or being controlled by an abuser.

Committee members asked whether medical billing could be routed through Oregon Health Plan or coordinated with CCOs; witnesses said insurance could cover care for insured survivors but underscored the SAVE fund’s role in ensuring care for uninsured or otherwise vulnerable survivors and in preventing billing action against survivors in the immediate aftermath.

The committee closed the public hearing; no vote was taken in the transcript.