SACRAMENTO\u00a0\u2013 Legislative Republicans are celebrating a major victory for victims of sex trafficking as the California Assembly Public Safety Committee today passed\u00a0Senate Bill 14 by Senator Shannon Grove<\/a>\u00a0that would make sex trafficking of minors a serious crime in California. Initially, Democrats in the Assembly Public Safety Committee blocked its passage on a 2-0 vote earlier this week with 6 Democrats not voting.<\/p>\n The measure passed, thanks to continual pressure by Legislative Republicans, former victims of trafficking, their families and a big coalition of advocates, law enforcement and the public demanding action be taken against traffickers. Today, Assembly Democrats, on a party-line vote, rejected a Republican attempt to have the entire Assembly vote on SB 14, bypassing the Public Safety Committee. In a rare move, however, the Speaker of the Assembly called for an emergency Public Safety Committee hearing to reconsider the bill where it passed with unanimous support.<\/p>\n \u201cDemocrats on the Assembly Public Safety Committee today reconsidered the merits of Senate Bill 14 and voted to let it out of committee,\u201d\u00a0said Senator Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), the bill author and champion of this issue.\u00a0\u201cThis is a bill with strong bipartisan support, and protecting victims of child sex trafficking should not be a partisan issue. Today is a victory for every survivor. However, the battle is not over\u2014SB 14 must still go through the Assembly Appropriations Committee when legislators return from Summer recess.\u00a0I believe most Assembly Democrats want to vote for this bill if they are given a chance, and I am hopeful we can succeed in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.\u00a0I urge every Californian to stay engaged until the bill is signed into law.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBipartisan outrage has finally forced Democrats to act,\u201d said\u00a0Assemblyman Joe Patterson (R-Rocklin).\u00a0\u201cThis is a victory for regular Californians, but it doesn\u2019t excuse Democrats\u2019 repeated votes to kill common-sense legislation, including my AB 229, to hold traffickers accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n When the bill was first rejected by the Assembly Public Safety Committee, Democrats in that committee received extreme backlash from local, state and national figures who questioned why those on the committee would reject a measure that had received unanimous support up to that point.<\/p>\n SB 14 was carefully crafted to meet concerns of previous legislative efforts and received unanimous support in the State Senate as it passed 40 to 0 out of the upper house of the Legislature.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the end, my Democrat colleagues in the Assembly Public Safety Committee did the right thing and passed SB 14 that will make sure repeat offenders of child sex trafficking are held accountable,\u201d\u00a0said Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones\u00a0(R-San Diego). \u201cIf it were not for the extraordinary pushback from figures around the state and nation, I fear the Democrats\u2019 one-party rule and some of their radical ideologies would have prevailed. I\u2019m grateful for the efforts of Senator Grove who has been a fearless leader on this issue and to my Senate Democrat colleagues who saw the need for this measure.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s taken days of public shaming for Democrats to do the right thing, but thanks to Republican pressure, we\u2019re seeing progress,\u201d\u00a0said Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher (Yuba City).\u00a0\u201cThe choice here is clear: child sex traffickers or victims. Anyone who fails to support SB 14 is choosing the traffickers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA child\u2019s vulnerability is not meant to be a profitable transaction. I\u2019m proud I was able to witness this bill passing the legislature today and hope that this will save children\u2019s lives,\u201d\u00a0says Dominique Brown, human trafficking victim, present today in the Assembly gallery.<\/p>\n For more information on SB 14,\u00a0click here<\/a>.\u00a0To view stories of survivors and advocates,\u00a0click here<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n Image Credit: Canva<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a significant triumph for victims of sex trafficking, the California Assembly Public Safety Committee has reversed course and passed Senate Bill 14, a critical legislation by Senator Shannon Grove that aims to establish the sex trafficking of minors as a serious crime in California. Despite initial resistance from Democrats in the committee, today’s development…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9673,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\n
Major Victory for Child Sex Trafficking Victims as Assembly Committee Reverses Course and Passes SB 14<\/a><\/h1>\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/o-2023-07-13T110603.878.png\")
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