Mark Souder: “This bipartisan bill was drafted just to deal with the rules-setting organizations, the rules of play. And the chairman…”

“This bipartisan bill was drafted just to deal with the rules-setting organizations, the rules of play. And the chairman of the committee, whom I thank for bringing this bill up, and the members of the committee were working together to try to address what I believe were extraneous concerns, but if they were real concerns of the House, we needed to address them even though they were not, in my opinion, in the first draft of the bill. Accidents are going to happen. The question is, will the injuries associated with athletics be allowed at all? How can you play youth football? How can you play youth soccer? How can you have swimming? How can you have wrestling if you are going to make it so that there is no risk? The balance that all these organizations have to do in their procedures to setting a rule is to balance the risk, the offense and the defense, and the care of the children involved and the young people involved in these sports. What this bill does is try to make it so that the people who are making the rules can't get sued unless in drafting the rules there was gross negligence.”