New York Congreswoman Carolyn B. Maloney announced on Wednesday that President Obama had just signed into law an extension of the Debbie Smith Act, a law that provides hundreds of millions of dollars to address the nationwide backlog of untested rape kits.

The law, which passed the House in April and the Senate in September, authorizes payments of $968 million over five years to be used to break the backlog of 400,000 untested kits.

"We are providing local crime labs across the country with the funds they need to work through their DNA backlogs, said Congresswoman Maloney. "Each time we convict a rapist using DNA evidence, we can protect countless other women from repeat sexual offenders. I am deeply concerned that far too many kits go years before they are tested."

Maloney introduced the original Debbie Smith Act in 2001, which was signed into law in 2004 and provided millions of dollars to state and local law enforcement for rape test analysis. This will be the third reauthorization of the act. It was named after rape survivor Debbie Smith who waited five years for DNA analysis of her rape kits which ultimately brought her attacker to justice.

"Each and every untested rape kit represents a possible unsolved crime. Such crucial components to a successful prosecution -- or exoneration -- must not be ignored," said Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance.

There are estimated 270,000 sexual assaults committed against women age 12 and older in the U.S. each year, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Report.  And it is estimated that only one third report the crime, while the others remain fearfully, in shame and concerned about prosecution and trails once they do report.