July 13, 2023

Sacramento, Calif.

“Days after blocking a bill that would have classified child sex trafficking as a serious felony in California, the state’s Assembly Public Safety Committee was forced on Thursday to hold a special hearing to vote on the bill again and pass it. The measure passed 6-0, with two Democrats not voting.

The move comes after the Democratic-led committee and Assembly faced backlash from the public and Democratic state leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, for halting the measure that aims to prevent repeat child sex traffickers from getting released from prison early. The measure is halfway through the legislative process and passed the California Senate unanimously with broad, bipartisan support.

Democratic Majority Leader, Isaac Bryan, who was also one of six Democrats on the committee who refused to vote for the bill on earlier this week, moved to waive rules on the Assembly floor Thursday morning that forced the committee to hear the bill again immediately.

Republican lawmakers in the Assembly attempted to pull the bill out of the committee and force a floor vote on the measure. Democrats countered, claiming if the bill were to reach the floor and bypass the Assembly Appropriations Committee, the measure may not be fully funded.

The last minute hearing marks the second time the committee’s chairman, Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Swayer, has been forced to reverse course on his decision making as the leader of the powerful policy committee. Assembly leadership earlier this year forced the committee to have a hearing on a set of fentanyl-related bills after he initially announced publicly he would not hear them.”

Source: KCRA 3

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The OCHTTF’s position on child sex trafficking continues to remain the same regardless of how this bill went. In 2017, California law changed and prevented minors from being arrested and charged for prostitution. However, by that time the OCHTTF had already begun investigating cases through a human trafficking and victim-centered lens, and had stopped making juvenile prostitution arrests by 2014. In similar fashion, whether or not this child sex trafficking protection bill was going to pass, there would have been no changes on our end to treat the human sex trafficking of minors as if it were a serious and violent crime, even if the law and penalties did not align. Nevertheless, we are thrilled to hear that the Assembly Public Safety Committee reconsidered their original position and passed this bill to move forward now to the Assembly Appropriations Committee and then to the Assembly floor before going to Governor Newsom’s desk.

Source: Linh Tran, Task Force Administrator II & Supervisor
Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force
Human Trafficking Program, Waymakers