S. 1280: A bill to amend the Protect Act to clarify certain volunteer liability.

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S. 1280: A bill to amend the Protect Act to clarify certain volunteer liability.

108th Congress · introduced 2003-06-18 · Crime and Law Enforcement · Latest: Became Public Law No: 108-68.

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Official title

A bill to amend the Protect Act to clarify certain volunteer liability.

Plain summary

Amends the Prosecutorial Remedies and Tools Against the Exploitation of Children Today Act of 2003 (PROTECT Act) to limit the liability of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (or a director, officer, employee, or agent) for volunteers in connection with a pilot program for volunteer groups to obtain national and State criminal history background checks through a 10-fingerprint check to be conducted utilizing State criminal records and the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Provides that the Center, in reliance upon stated fitness criteria and except upon proof of actual malice or intentional misconduct, shall not be liable in any civil action for damages: (1) arising from any act or communication by the Center that results in or contributes to a decision that an individual is unfit to serve as a volunteer for any volunteer organization; (2) alleging harm arising from a decision based on the information in an individual's criminal history record that an individual is fit to serve as a volunteer for any volunteer organization unless the Center is furnished with an individual's criminal history records which they know to be inaccurate or incomplete, or which they know reflect a lesser crime than that for which the individual was arrested; and (3) alleging harm arising from a decision that, based on the absence of criminal history information, an individual is fit to serve as a volunteer for any volunteer organization unless the Center knows that criminal history records exist and have not been furnished as required by the Act.

Congressional Research Service summary (Reported to Senate with amendment(s)), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.

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Officials and money

Sponsor: Sen. Hatch, Orrin G. [R-UT] · 1 cosponsors

Cost estimate: CBO cost estimate: S. 1280, An act to amend the PROTECT Act to clarify certain volunteer liability (2003-07-21); CBO cost estimate: S. 1280, An act to amend the PROTECT Act to clarify certain volunteer liability (2003-07-21)

Cosponsors on this site

No linked floor roll calls in our collected records yet. This does not mean the bill has never had a vote. Check the official bill history.

Sources

• Congressional Research Service summary (Reported to Senate with amendment(s))
• Congress.gov
• Data: GovInfo BILLSTATUS bulk data (Library of Congress), BILLSTATUS-108s1280.xml <https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS/108/s>

Record fed-us-cong108-s1280 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong108 · updated 2026-11-15 by psicol fed-bills-cong108