PROVIDENCE — The Senate and House judiciary committees endorsed separate bills late Thursday to strengthen laws against sex trafficking of minors.

If approved by both chambers, anyone who recruits, solicits or harbors a minor to perform “commercial sexual activity” would face imprisonment for up to 40 years and a fine of up to $40,000 –– regardless of whether prosecutors could prove coercion.

The existing state law against sex trafficking requires prosecutors to prove the use of force or coercion which, supporters say, makes it harder to obtain convictions

Both bills also would expand the law to cover people who are enticed or coerced into forced labor. But they also differed in key respects.

The House bill (H-5661 A) introduced by Rep. Joanne M. Giannini, D-Providence, and approved by the committee in an 8-0 vote, lacked two provisions — still contained in the Senate measure — that the attorney general’s office estimated would cost $215,000 to implement. Giannini agreed to remove a requirement that detailed police training and the creation of a 16-member oversight committee to establish protocol for identifying trafficking victims.

Giannini said she agreed to remove those sections to avoid having the bill go to the House Finance Committee for approval and run the risk of failure because of the spending provisions.

The Senate bill (S-605 A) sponsored by Sen. Rhoda E. Perry, D-Providence, kept intact both the training and the oversight committee requirements. A representative of the attorney general’s office who had been scheduled to testify refrained from doing so, saying the office would submit written comment instead.

Shanna Wells, director of the Rhode Island Commission on Women, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the oversight committee is “crucial” to the legislation. Forty-two similar task forces have been established around the country, she said, with federal prosecutors, local law enforcement and victims services providers working together to help identify trafficking victims. In 2006 and 2007, she said, the rate of convictions for sex traffickers nationally has “increased five-fold.”

Representatives of groups testifying in favor of the Senate bill also included the victims’ advocacy group Day One; the Rhode Island Coalition Against Human Trafficking; the Polaris Project; the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union; Tara Hurley, a documentary filmmaker who has recently released a film about Rhode Island brothels entitled Happy Endings?, and University of Rhode Island Prof. Donna M. Hughes, who has done extensive research on global sex-trafficking.

larditi@projo.com