Congress is pushing legislation to help law enforcement around the country reduce the number of untested rape kits.

New York City Rep. Carolyn Maloney introduced the SAFER Act of 2012 in the House Tuesday.

It’s believed there are as many as 400,000 untested rape kits nationwide.

Lawmakers sponsoring the legislation said because the nation's backlog is so large, many offenders go unprosecuted because by the time they’re identified, the statute of limitations has expired.

"New York City is currently seeing an arrest rate of 70 percent in sexual assault cases," Maloney said. "That's a wonderful record and that is because we do not have a backlog. New York is processing the backlog. What we want is for other jurisdictions across this country to process the backlog."

A similar bill was introduced in the Senate in May.

Lawmakers said they're hopeful that a vote to pass the legislation will happen before the end of the year.