WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) this week sponsored the Volunteer Organization Protection Act (S. 1684) to provide additional liability protections to volunteer groups and organizations like Lions Clubs International, Rotary International, Kiwanis International, the YMCA and more. This bill would expand good Samaritan protections to diminish a person’s risk of liability when participating in acts of service as a volunteer.

“The efforts of volunteer organizations like Lions Clubs, Rotary, Kiwanis and the YMCA are essential to communities across Kansas, and I’m proud to support legislation that will help to make certain nonprofit volunteer groups are able to continue to serve others,” Sen. Moran said. “These clubs and their members make a positive and meaningful contribution to the quality of life in their communities.”

Specifically, the legislation amends the Volunteer Protection Act of 1997 to:

• Prevent the application of vicarious liability rules to non-profit organizations who conduct their activities using primarily volunteers and who did not expressly authorize an alleged harm-producing activity in anticipation of raising charitable funds; and
• Extend governmental immunities to non-profit organizations for actions taken at the request of, or on the authority of, a government entity that would be immune if it undertook the actions itself. 

S. 1684 was introduced by Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and is currently pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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