Senate panel advances bill expanding penalties for soliciting minors, keeps controversial loitering offense

The Senate Public Safety Committee on Tuesday voted to send Assembly Bill 379 to the Senate Appropriations Committee after hours of testimony from survivors, prosecutors, law‑enforcement groups and organizations representing sex‑worker and civil‑liberties advocates.

AB 379, authored in the Assembly by Assemblymember R. Schultz and presented in the Senate hearing by the bill author, would restore criminal penalties for solicitation of a minor aged 16 or 17 when the perpetrator is at least three years older, create a misdemeanor for loitering with the intent to purchase commercial sex, and increase civil and criminal penalties on businesses that facilitate trafficking. The bill also creates a new vertical prosecution grant program and directs fines to a survivor support fund.

Supporters described the…