Vice President Joe Biden hopes to reduce nationwide rape kit testing backlog with a $41 million budget proposal that continues a sexual assault initiative, CBS News reported.

Accompanied by outgoing Sen. Barbara Mikulski, Biden traveled to the Maryland State Police Forensic Science Laboratory in Pikesville on Monday, where he told advocates that the Obama administration is committed to increasing funding to help clear the backlog, the Baltimore Sun added.

"Testing rape kits should be a priority for the (United States)," the vice president said. "If we're able to test these rape kits, more crimes would be solved, more rapes would be avoided."

DNA analysis is costly and time-consuming, and police have long wrestled with the effort involved. But advocates insist the kits not only contribute to solving open cases of sexual assault but also help prevent future crimes, the Baltimore newspaper noted.

"Thousands of women right now are looking over their shoulder. Thousands of them wonder, 'Will he come back?'" Biden insisted. "We should make the money available. We can restore women's lives," he said.

The vice president recalled that Congress approved the $41 million in new grant funding last year to help reduce the backlog, a sum that could help process some 400,000 rape kits nationwide. President Barack Obama, meanwhile, wants that funding to continue into the next fiscal year and add another $20 million to identify new ways to deal with the issue.

Mikulski pointed to data from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to illustrate the gravity of the issue, according to Yahoo News.

"There is a horrific statistic from the CDC that says one in four women will face rape, violence, or stalking," the senator said. Women are then often "doubly victimized by a system that doesn't follow through on the prosecution."

Monday's event did not mark the first time Biden and Mikulski have joined forces on issues of sexual violence. In 1994, when Biden was a Delaware senator, he and his Maryland counterpart helped pass the Violence Against Women Act -- a landmark piece of legislation that first required states to provide free DNA testing to anyone who reports a rape.