[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 54 (Wednesday, April 30, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3833-S3836]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
VOLUNTEER PROTECTION ACT OF 1997--MOTION TO PROCEED
The Senate continued with the consideration of the motion to proceed.
Mr. COVERDELL. Madam President, I guess only those who have just
tuned in would be aware of the fact that we have been discussing an
attempt since Monday afternoon, from Monday afternoon until Wednesday
at 3 p.m., to allow the Senate to proceed to S. 543. The other side has
decided to filibuster this legislation and has now twice blocked our
attempts to end debate and move on to the bill. Although we are getting
closer, we might say, well, maybe if there are five more votes like the
one today, we will finally end the debate; the bill being a very
narrow, specific proposal that tries to respond to the call of the
President and three former Presidents to encourage voluntarism in
America.
To revisit for a moment what was going on in Philadelphia, it was
Gen. Colin Powell who said that ``the multiple crises confronting
children in America have the potential to explode our society.'' I am
going to reread the quote of General Powell.
``The multiple crises confronting children have the
potential to explode our society,'' as General Powell called
on his fellow Americans to make an extraordinary personal
commitment to serve as mentors to at-risk youth.
Earlier today I pointed out that volunteers being called on today are
often called on to participate in situations that are less than normal
environments; that the potential for volatility and miscommunication
and misunderstanding is very high.
S. 543 has perhaps more importance today than it did over a decade
ago when it was first envisioned in this Congress because it gives the
volunteer a shield, a modest shield I might add, from certain kinds of
liability. It does not protect the volunteer from willful or wanton
misconduct. For example, if a volunteer were driving an automobile and
inebriated, there would be no protection whatsoever. But for the
everyday routine activity, it would protect the volunteers.
Here we have General Powell saying to his fellow Americans, make an
extraordinary personal commitment to serve as mentors to at-risk youth.
And here we are having spent 3 days trying to pass one modest proposal
to help those volunteers step forward and we are systematically choked
and throttled. What a great response to General Powell and to the
Nation, calling on Americans to come forward and then we have a boot on
their neck right here in the Nation's Capitol in this Chamber.
It goes on to say:
Together with President Clinton, former Presidents Bush,
Carter, Ford, 30 Governors and 100 mayors participating in a
conference on volunteering--
Conference on volunteering--
Powell said that as many as 15 million young Americans need
mentors to help them overcome the adversities they face.
Well, by logical conclusion, that means we have to have many millions
of Americans to come forward to take care of just this audience--15
million young Americans need mentoring. That does not include the
senior citizens who need mentoring, who need Meals on Wheels, who need
somebody to come by and visit in the evening. That does not include the
young people who are involved in youthful sports like Little League
baseball or Pop Warner football. That does not include the Americans
that would travel to the Midwest to assist in filling sandbags, who
would help clean out the muck and debris that will follow this flood.
In other words, it requires millions upon millions of Americans to
step forward. And yet a cursory review of the data demonstrates
conclusively that because of legal threats, the number of volunteers is
dropping. It is going in the wrong direction in terms of what General
Powell and Presidents Clinton and Bush are asking. There are not more
Americans stepping forward; there are less. And a principal reason
there are less is that they do not mind volunteering, but they do mind
putting their entire family's assets--their checking accounts, their
home, their business--in a legal lottery.
I told the story this morning of the situation where a charity, a
nonprofit, had a gym for youth to use after school and a youngster
broke his arm when he dropped the weights. The organization did not
have any resources to speak of, but the volunteer receptionist did.
Guess who got sued. Right, the volunteer receptionist. Those kinds of
things get around, and before long you have more and more Americans
saying, ``I want to volunteer, but I don't want to jeopardize my
family.''
General Powell said these children are at risk of growing
up physically or psychologically abused. They are at risk of
growing up addicted to the pathologies and the poisons of the
street. They are at risk of bringing children into the world
before they themselves have grown up. They are at risk of
never growing up at all.
Madam President, I have been joined by two of my most esteemed
colleagues, Senator Ashcroft of Missouri and Senator Thomas of Wyoming.
I am going to call on Senator Ashcroft to make a few remarks, but I
would just
[[Page S3834]]
like to remind the Senator and close on this point, that not only are
we asking American volunteers in the summit to step forward in greater
numbers but--and this is a key point we have not talked enough about--
we are asking them to be volunteers in very difficult environments--in
poisonous streets, dangerous streets, where communications are
difficult. In other words, where the threat of being liable for an
error or mistake is probably many more times multiplied. This is not
just asking volunteers to go on a fishing trip. We are asking
volunteers to go into some very tough situations which only complicates
and calls further on this Senate, this Congress to do something to give
them some relief from the threat of everything they own being up for
grabs.
With that, I yield the floor.
Mr. ASHCROFT addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri is recognized.
Mr. ASHCROFT. I am deeply grateful for this opportunity to respond to
the final point of the Senator from Georgia, who has pointed out that
we need volunteers among the most needy and among the most deprived
individuals in our culture, and those most needy and deprived
individuals are the riskiest people to help.
I cite this article which I hold in my hand on civil justice: ``A
Thousand Points of Fright?''--f-r-i-g-h-t, not l-i-g-h-t. It is a
scholarly work by David Webber. He writes that ``lawsuit fears are
dampening the enthusiasm of volunteers.'' And he says, ``And the White
House is beginning to take notice,'' which is constructive. I commend
the White House. I commend the President for mobilizing the Presidents,
to have the Presidents' summit on voluntarism.
But one of the interesting things that the governmental relations
director for the National PTA says is that ``we are just more conscious
than ever before of litigious possibilities. The bad thing has been the
chilling effect on activities we can sponsor, especially for high-risk
kids--kids with handicaps--and child care programs.''
What he has basically said is exactly what the Senator from Georgia
was speaking of; that in the highest risk situations we have a chilling
effect not only on volunteers but on programs, where you begin to see
the withdrawals of programs, the programs that do not go into effect,
the programs that do not exist, opportunities that are never
capitalized on because of this sort of chill that comes from the
litigious, as he calls it, possibilities.
I must admit that frequently these possibilities do not result in a
lawsuit with a verdict against the volunteer, but if you work as a
volunteer and you are sued, it could cost you $10,000 just to defend
the suit--$10,000. And, of course, you could have a judgment against
you just as the Boy Scout leader from the Cascade Pacific Council had a
verdict of $4 million against him, because you let the boys play touch
football, or the Little League coach who, because he shifted the player
from shortstop to left field, gets a judgment against him. I mean these
volunteers obviously are going to think about what happens to their
family. How can my kids go to school? I would love to help the world,
but I have to protect my family.
That would be a response you would have to commend in individuals,
and yet it is not something we want in America. We do not want to have
to choose between helping the world or protecting our families. We want
to be able to say to a volunteer, you can do both. The genius of
America is that we do not have to be selfish in order to protect our
families. The genius of America is that we have always been able to
help each other, while we have protected our families.
The kinds of lawsuits that we have seen are just incredible. A 14-
year-old boy was sliding into home plate head first when he collided
with the catcher. The catcher had blocked the plate as instructed.
Catchers are always instructed to block the plate. In the rules of
baseball, it is the only position where you are entitled to stand in
front of the plate without the ball. But the catcher had blocked the
plate and, unfortunately, there was a neck injury. Although plaintiff
came to the league sliding head first, and that was the way he liked to
play baseball, the volunteer coaches were found negligent for not being
able to adjust the way the child slided--slid. I sound like Dizzy Dean,
who used to say ``slud into second.'' But volunteer coaches were held
negligent for not instructing the player on proper sliding techniques
and failing to warn of the danger created by sliding into home plate
head first. Of course, the player obviously watched major league player
after major league player, role models all--and they should be, many of
them great folks--sliding in head first.
I wonder about asking people to volunteer to coach these children, so
many of them without dads in their own homes, so many of them at-risk
kids, doing their best to provide them enthusiasm for their sport, and
restraints so as to protect themselves. And, when there is an injury,
having that kind of lawsuit. So many of our volunteers are around
sports--you wonder about the kind of lawsuits that surround sports.
Here is one that really stunned me. It was a part-time official who
was asked to officiate in a crucial Big Ten basketball game. At the
last second he called a foul that gave one of the teams a victory. He
called them like he saw them. It switched the victory. A souvenir
company that had anticipated the victory by the other team sued the
official, challenging his call with a $175,000 negligence suit claiming
he had wrongfully harmed the souvenir company's ability to sell their
souvenirs. The official won the lawsuit. So let us just lay that to
rest, the official won the lawsuit. But only after a 2-year court
battle that went all the way to the Iowa Supreme Court.
Do you know what it takes, in terms of resources, to take a court
battle to the supreme court of one of our States? I mean, it takes more
than it takes to send a kid to college. It takes more than it takes to
have family vacations. It takes more than it takes for some families to
buy a home. It certainly takes more than it takes even for the
wealthiest families, almost, to have a downpayment on a home. We ask
people to volunteer in these kinds of settings. It seems to me we ought
to have some protection for them.
Here is another one that caught my eye. I should not say ``caught my
eye,'' because this is about a person who was hit in the eye, a catcher
in a softball game. He was playing without a mask. The umpire had a
mask. The catcher got hit in the eye. He sued the umpire because the
umpire had not given him his mask. The catcher walked away with a
$24,000 settlement.
We are asking people to volunteer. I think the President is doing the
right thing. There is absolutely no question in my mind that he is
calling America to greatness, a greatness that reflects the character
of the fact that we care for each other. That is what America is all
about. It is what sent de Tocqueville back to France, 150 years ago,
exclaiming about the virtue of America. He said it was not to be found
in the corridors of the bureaucracy or the Halls of the Congress. He
said it was to be found in the people. He said America is great because
America is good.
We want the goodness of America to be reflected again in this
country. We want the capacity of people to identify with each other, to
love each other--literally love each other enough to say I am not just
content to work with my own kids, I am going to work with the kids in
the neighborhood and some kids who are not as fortunate as mine. Maybe
they are kids who have lost their mom or dad, for one reason or
another. That kind of tragedy has touched my family and it has touched
most of the people in this country, and we want the loving character of
American citizens to be available and we do not want it to be
inhibited. We do not want it to be so you cannot volunteer.
I think about those women in Evanston, IL, who wanted to set up the
home for battered women. They could not get insurance because of the
litigation potential. All the insurance companies said you have to
operate for 3 years without insurance before we can determine whether
or not we will insure you. So nobody could risk their own family in
order to help other people. They did not want their own homes to be
taken in order to provide a home for someone else. So we end up not
having that extension of compassion in our culture.
I do not think there is any President who has more successfully said
to the
[[Page S3835]]
people in this country, ``I feel your pain.'' He says it with
sincerity, and I believe he does. He has a great capacity to empathize.
And he has called this country to feel it, to feel the opportunity and
respond to the opportunity to help one another. And we have a great
opportunity to say we are going to take a big roadblock out of the way.
I started out by referring to this article, ``A Thousand Points of
Fright?'', saying the most difficult to help are the riskiest to help.
And they need help badly. We have this barrier standing in the way. We
have gone through examples. I guess we could tell stories about these
lawsuits until the cows came home--at least that's a phrase my aunt
used to use--but the truth of the matter is, this is important. It was
important enough for the four previous Presidents of the United States
to join the current President of the United States and one of the
greatest military heroes of our age, to join the whole effort and to
galvanize public opinion to try to say we need volunteers.
It is a little bit confounding, to think there are those in this body
who want to stop us from considering--who do not even want us to have a
chance to debate and vote on an issue like giving volunteers this kind
of break.
I do not know how anybody could say we want to make sure that a
person who volunteers has the potential to be sued and harassed. I
notice that a former Attorney General of the United States, Dick
Thornburgh, wrote an opinion piece for one of our major newspapers. He
said: ``If you are sued, the average cost to defend yourself--'' in a
case not involving a car, car cases cost a lot of money, usually--``is
$7,500.'' There isn't anybody who can afford that and that is the
average cost. That includes the cases that are dismissed.
I think it is time for us to say we want more volunteers, we want to
cooperate with the President, we want America to be what America has
the character to be. It is time for us to respond to the people. We
need to respond to the people by inviting them to have the kind of
caring compassion reflected in voluntarism. It is the least we can do
to pull the roadblocks out of their way and make a clear path for
Americans to care for each other.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Georgia is recognized.
Mr. COVERDELL. Madam President, I appreciate very much the remarks by
the Senator from Missouri. As usual they are most eloquent and
inspirational and on target. I appreciate very much his coming to the
floor and sharing his views on S. 543, of which he is a principal
cosponsor.
Madam President, I return to the point I was making a moment ago
about what the Nation was being implored to do by General Powell and
the President. Most of these initial quotes are from General Powell. He
points out that President Clinton appointed General Powell as general
chairman of the President's Summit for America's Future and the former
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff pledged to ensure that ``promises
made during the celebrity-packed event are fulfilled long after the
hoopla is over.''
Madam President, the hoopla is over. It is time, frankly, for all of
these officials to send a message here, I think, that we need to take
this affirmative step. It is a perfect affirmative step for us to take,
following the glorious visuals, and get down to the real grassroots
practicals, which are the protection, as framed in S. 543, of
volunteers, so that they are able to respond to the hoopla. Down in my
part of the country, they say this is now where ``the rubber hits the
road.'' It is no longer the glory of the balloons and television. We
are talking about the real, practical efforts that have to take place
on the ground to make it possible for volunteers to renew America's
volunteer spirit.
The President went on to say to General Powell: ``This may
be your most important mission and I thank you for
reenlisting.'' The few thousand delegates from across the
Nation who were seated on the lawn outside the historic
structure, rose to their feet in applause.
It is obvious that the inspirational moment was infectious. How often
have we witnessed a gathering like this, raising the expectations,
lifting the heart, bringing a nation to its feet--an exhilarating
moment, only to find 3 months later or 6 months later that the issue
disappeared with the last hand clap, that all the expectations that
were being sought were forgotten after everybody got back on the plane,
got back home. We do not want that to be the legacy of this summit.
Congress ought to step forward, not only on the proposal that I and
others have offered here, which alleviates, and creates a shield,
protects the volunteers, makes it possible for them to answer this call
and to be a piece of this applause, to be an extension of this
applause.
There are many things we ought to do to expand voluntarism in
America, and make it easier and more readily doable. But an absolute
must, as a beginning, Madam President, is that we remove the chill and
legal intimidation that has caused a dramatic drop in the number of
Americans who will answer the call, that have left doubt in volunteers
about what they do. Even if they answer the call, the way they respond
to their activity is changed and altered by this legal chill that hangs
over voluntarism in America.
It goes on to say:
By encouraging volunteering, the President is trying to
promote positive change in American society at a time when
the Congress and bipartisan emphasis on balancing the Federal
budget make it politically difficult, if not impossible, to
create new Government programs to address the country's
pressing social problems.
This is an appropriate response. This is exactly correct. America's
financial predicament does not allow us to do some of the things we
have done in the past, and America must call on its citizens to help
fill the gaps.
This is not a new experience for America. America was founded in
times of austere circumstances for most Americans, and it was in that
era that the concept of American voluntarism was born. So we are not
creating a new phenomenon here; we are simply returning to our roots.
Everybody remembers--we have either seen it or read about it--the
volunteer coming to the aid of a family that was damaged by some
accident or problem in the rural area of our country--the barn
building, the coming together in any kind of need to help families,
community members. As I said earlier, this is as much a part of
America's treasure as its Capitol, as its monuments, as its parks.
Voluntarism is a unique feature of American life, and it ought to be
nurtured and protected, just as we do the other American treasures,
like the way we care for this Capitol. This is the Capitol of the
United States, the capital of the free world, and it is an expression
of who we are as a people, and we care for it. We should be every bit
as attentive to our concern about the treasure that voluntarism makes
for America.
There is no way to ever calculate the value of what American
voluntarism has meant to our country in any given year. It is billions
upon billions of dollars that are freely given and invested to help the
country be a better place. But I think the connection that the
President makes between the need for voluntarism and the financial
predicament the country faces is correct.
This is a difficult time. This is a time of shrinking resources. Our
generation of Americans has to confront decisions that were made over
the last three decades that have left our generation to deal with over
$5 trillion worth of debt and to deal with promises that, unmanaged,
will consume 100 percent of the U.S. Treasury within 8 years.
Let me repeat that. Our basic entitlement programs already consume
over 50 percent of the U.S. Treasury, which is a dramatic increase from
when I arrived just 4 years ago. It is spiraling upward. So it is
absolutely correct for the President to make a linkage between the
financial condition of the country and the need to reach out and get
Americans to do things on their own accord that the Government can no
longer do--maybe one can argue never should have done in the first
place. I am sure part of the reason voluntarism has been weakened is
because there has been a message that has been reverberating around the
country for about 25 years that the final resolution of all of our
community ills ought to be the Government. I think we are learning that
that is not, and has never been, the case.
The final resolution of many of our ills rests with the people
themselves. A key component of that is the American spirit and the
American willingness to volunteer.
[[Page S3836]]
The President goes on and says:
The era of big Government may be over, but the era of big
challenges for our country is not.
I think every American would agree with that.
``So we need an era of big citizenship,'' the President said in
Philadelphia. ``We need an era of big citizenship.''
I certainly agree with that, and I think every Member of Congress
would agree with that. But while the Government may not be able to do
some of the things it used to do, the Government certainly should not
be an impediment to big citizenship. The Government ought not to be
throttling attempts to make it easier to be a forthcoming citizen.
Frankly, I don't think the Government should be engaged in a
filibuster that prevents our moving legislation that would make it
dramatically and clearly easier to be a part of the era of big
citizenship.
General Powell, who has experience orchestrating successful
operations, has made it his own personal crusade to recruit an army of
millions of volunteers around the country. He has committed himself to
being able to certify by the year 2000 that the 2 million children
lacking mentoring, safe places to play and learn, health care,
marketable skills, and a good education will have those needs met.
Once again, he alludes to the point that I have mentioned several
times this afternoon. Safe places to play begs the question that many
of them do not have safe places to play today. They are dangerous
places, and being dangerous, they are more likely to be places in which
accidents and mistakes and misunderstandings occur. In other words,
this is not your normal playground. This may be a rough-edge community
which you are asking the volunteer to enter, to subject themselves.
A more dangerous place means it is fraught with the potential of
legal action. So we are asking these millions of volunteers not only to
come forward, but to come forward into environments that are less
predictable and, therefore, create a greater risk for the volunteer.
I mentioned earlier today, Madam President, that the need for this
legislation is fairly new; that we did not have a problem of volunteers
being sued until we got into the eighties. Suddenly they became
targets, and once you get something like that started, it feeds on
itself, and it has. So the lawsuits have grown, and the threat has
grown.
Now we are saying, in this environment where litigation is more
prevalent, on top of that, we want you to go into a more difficult
environment. Well, there is an incongruity here. As a result of this
exchange, one of my first acts will be to communicate to General Powell
that we need his help to convince this Congress that they need to
remove barriers so that he can get his 2 million volunteers to come
forward.
Madam President, the hour is now 20 till 4. We have now been on this
since 2 o'clock last Monday, this 12-page bill, double spaced, and we
continue to be prohibited from actually going to the debate. We will
revisit this, but for the moment, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Faircloth). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
____________________