Paul Coverdell: “I did not expect the majority leader to invest the time, which I very much appreciate his having done, to frame the…”

“I did not expect the majority leader to invest the time, which I very much appreciate his having done, to frame the nature of the situation we have here. But, just to restate it for those who may be listening, in response to the summit on voluntarism, we have brought to the Senate floor a very specific proposal, legislation, to make it easier for Americans to volunteer. We have moved to bring it before the Senate and the other side is filibustering that motion in order to prevent our taking action on this Volunteer Protection Act. As I said in response to the leader, this is legislation that has been before the Congress in one form or another for almost 12 years, and has been consistently rebutted by the hierarchy of the Trial Lawyers Association. It is 12 pages long and it gives modest protection to volunteers who step forward in the 600,000 organizations across our land who try to promote the interests of those in need, whether they are children, the elderly, the illiterate, the wounded, or those who have been affected by the very flood we are talking about in the Midwest. We have appeal after appeal from organization after organization requesting the legislation. They are having volunteer members of their boards of directors resign, because while they want to help, they do not envision taking all their family business and all their family assets and putting them in a lottery, so they resign.”