Sacramento - Democrats in Congress oppose a controversial bill that would increase the fines for minors aged 16 or 17, a change that occurred after they faced criticism from Republicans and condemnation by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

New amendments to the legislation, AB 379, will allow prosecutors to file felony charges against adults aged 16 or 17. If the defendant is three years older than the minor, he can be charged with felony crime. If the offender is within three years of a minor, the charge is a misdemeanor.

The bill will now include a state grant program to help simplify prosecution of trafficking and sex trafficking cases, as well as support funds for survivors, with partly increased by fines from businesses that ignore or aid trafficking in persons.

Current law allows for the solicitation of offences under the age of 16 as misdemeanors or felony for the first offence and subsequent felony offences.

Combination Maggy Krell (D-Sacramento) wrote AB 379, extending the same penalty to those who solicit 16 and 17 years old. Last week, the Democratic-led parliament approved an amendment that eliminates the rules that Crair opposes.

On Tuesday, Krell issued a statement supporting the new changes in Democratic leadership.

"I look at this from a prosecutor's perspective - the bill strengthens California law and gives us felony hammers prosecuting teenagers for squirting squirming," she said in a statement.

Krell temporarily ally with Republicans when there were two options last week - amending the bill without adding felony charges, or leaving it dead on the committee. Despite Newsom's comments, Democrats defended the amendment, saying anyone with minors should be charged with felony crimes.

"The law should treat all sexual predators soliciting minors - regardless of felony crimes, regardless of the expected age of the victim," Newsom said in a statement last week. "Only."

Republicans launched an ad campaign Monday ahead of the deal announcement that attacked some Democrats voted to prevent children from protecting.

"That's how these guys vote, you know?" said James Gallagher, the Republican minority leader in Yuba City, after the deal was concluded. "They gave up on their kids who were 16 or 17."

He called the move a "complete cave" for democratic leaders, based on public and Republican pressure.

"This new language, it's a surrender. It's a mistake to admit that what they're doing, and now they've completely changed the course," he said.

Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper said misdemeanor charges soliciting older minors on social media “equivalent to someone with the same traffic ticket.”

Earlier, the meeting of the President of the Public Safety Commission convened Nick Schultz (D-Burbank) who had said he would hold an information hearing on the provision in the fall, citing that young teenagers may face unexpected felony crimes as they are more dangerous to sexual trafficking of victims, although criticism of opponents and unwise situations of unwise situations that could make victims more dangerous than crime.

The bill is still being considered in Parliament in the form of an amendment.