Volunteers would be protected from some liability claims under a bill overwhelmingly approved by the Senate.

"Who's going to be a coach when you can get sued for sending someone to left field?" Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., a sponsor of the bill, said before it passed Thursday, 99-1.The legislation "will stop the irrationality of asking people to choose between protecting their family and helping their neighbors," he said.

Sen. Paul Coverdell, R-Ga., the bill's chief sponsor, contended voluntarism is on the decline because of fears of lawsuits, which he said have increasingly targeted volunteers since the mid-1980s.

"Volunteerism has been chilled and threatened and pushed back and been less exuberant . . . because of the threat of legal consequences," Coverdell said.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said he did not "believe the threat of litigation deters Americans from volunteering to help neighbors." But he added, "I want volunteers, as we all do, to be able to help whenever they can." Their biggest worry, he said, should be "how much stamina they'll have to help."

After criticizing the initial version of the bill, Leahy worked out a compromise with Coverdell, which the Senate passed and sent to the House.

The important features of the compromise, he said, were that the bill focused liability protection on volunteers - excluding the organizations they volunteer for - and it allowed more leeway for states that have their own protections, as 44 do.

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