House committee lays over bill to raise penalties for prostituting minors

Representative Rehrig presented House File 128 to a Minnesota House committee and the committee laid the bill over for possible inclusion in the committee omnibus after testimony and questions from members.

House File 128 would raise penalties for prostituting a minor to match penalties in Minnesota’s criminal sexual conduct (CSC) statutes. "House File 128 will increase the penalties to be the same as criminal sexual conduct for prostituting a minor," Representative Rehrig said during testimony.

The change would raise maximum imprisonment terms tied to the victim’s age: for victims under 14, the penalty would increase from 20 years to 30 years (matching first-degree CSC); for victims 14 to 16, from 10 years to 15 years (matching third-degree CSC); and for victims 16 to 18, from 5 years to 10 years (matching fourth-degree CSC). Representative Rehrig said the change responds to an inconsistency identified during recent statute review.

Caroline Palmer, interim supervisor of the Violence Prevention Programs Unit at the Minnesota Department of Health, provided technical assistance and described harms suffered by children and youth exploited through prostitution. "The exploitation of children and youth in prostitution is a horrific crime resulting in short and long term physical and mental health harms," Palmer said, and she outlined settings where exploitation occurs and risk factors traffickers exploit.

Palmer and Representative Rehrig described research and service gaps. Palmer cited a 2014 University of Minnesota study showing buyers’ ages and victim ages in Minneapolis court and police records and noted that services for victims remain limited; she also said research increasingly documents that boys are exploited as well as girls.

Representative Pinto asked whether the administration formally endorses the bill; Palmer said the Department of Health was providing technical assistance and that the bill is not part of the governor’s budget. Representative Mueller said existing CSC statutes can, in some cases, already be used to charge those who engage in prostitution with underage victims, but did not oppose further statutory alignment.

Committee members asked about bill structure and fiscal impacts; a fiscal note was ordered. The committee did not vote on final passage; the chair laid the bill over for possible inclusion in the committee omnibus.

The bill’s proponents credited a statutory review by a staff member identified as Mr. Johnson and a multi-year effort by legislators and advocates to revise related statutes. No formal vote tally was recorded in the transcript; the record shows the committee’s disposition as "laid over for possible inclusion."