[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 53 (Tuesday, April 29, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S3763]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, today, the Senate will resume consideration 
of the motion to proceed to the consideration of S. 543, the Volunteer 
Protection Act. Debate on the motion to proceed will continue until 
12:30 p.m., with the time equally divided between Senator Coverdell, or 
his designee, and the ranking member, or his designee. From 12:30 p.m. 
to 2:15 p.m., the Senate will be in recess for the weekly policy 
luncheons. By a previous order, at 2:15 p.m., there will be a cloture 
vote on the motion to proceed to S. 543, the Volunteer Protection Act. 
If cloture is invoked, there will be 1 hour of debate, followed by a 
vote on the motion to proceed. As a reminder, a second cloture motion 
was filed last night on the motion to proceed to S. 543. Therefore, if 
cloture is not invoked at 2:15 p.m., there will be a second vote on 
Wednesday. Hopefully, cloture will be invoked today, and the Senate can 
begin consideration of this important bill.
  I note again, this is debate on the motion to proceed on a bill that 
seems to me we would certainly want to pass in short order to provide 
some basic protection for volunteers who serve on boards of charitable 
organizations, volunteer organizations. That is the spirit of what we 
have seen in Philadelphia for the last 3 days, and yet, if you 
volunteer in America, you run the risk of being sued. Maybe we can work 
out some of the concerns that lawyers may have about this bill. But it 
seems like it is the fair thing to do.
  We have other work we need to do. I am sure Senators would like to 
turn to the supplemental appropriations bill as soon as possible. We 
hope that bill will be ready for consideration Wednesday or Thursday, 
but we have to dispose of the Volunteer Protection Act first. There are 
other concerns that we think need to be addressed. So we will be 
working with the minority leader to see if we can come to some 
agreement on how we can conclude these very important pieces of 
legislation.
  I yield the floor, Mr. President.

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