H.R. 2432: Volunteer Organization Protection Act of 2017

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H.R. 2432: Volunteer Organization Protection Act of 2017

115th Congress · introduced 2017-05-16 · Law · Latest: Referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice.

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Official title

Volunteer Organization Protection Act of 2017

Plain summary

Volunteer Organization Protection Act of 2017 This bill amends the Volunteer Protection Act of 1997 to expand liability protections to volunteer nonprofit organizations for harm caused by an act or omission of a volunteer on behalf of the organization. The bill prohibits such liability protections from applying if the organization: (1) would be liable under laws governing the direct or vicarious liability of organizations, and (2) expressly authorized the specific conduct constituting the act or omission. The bill bars such an organization from liability for harm caused by the organization, or a volunteer acting on its behalf, if the act or omission was at the request of, or pursuant to an authorization by, a state, the United States, or another governmental subdivision, provided that: (1) the requesting or authorizing governmental entity would have been immune either from suit or from liability in damages if it had engaged in the acts or omissions itself or through employees or independent contractors; or (2) the governmental employee, agent, or contractor would have been immune either from suit or from liability in damages by virtue of immunity extended to individual governmental actors. The bill prohibits punitive damages from being awarded against a volunteer nonprofit organization for the actions of a volunteer within the scope of the volunteer's responsibilities to the organization unless the claimant establishes by clear and convincing evidence that the organization itself expressly authorized the volunteer's action with a conscious, flagrant indifference to the rights or safety of the individual harmed.

Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in House), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.

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PSI Sci description of the legislative step (not an opinion).

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Alternatives

Needs sources: no published alternatives yet (for example a different bill, a law instead of an amendment, or keeping current law). We only show items backed by a published source. Suggest one.

How did my representative vote? · This bill's floor votes

Officials and money

Sponsor: Rep. Chabot, Steve [R-OH-1] · 37 cosponsors

Cost estimate: No cost estimate published yet.

Cosponsors on this site

Scott DesJarlais (R-TN), Robert E. Latta (R-OH), Pete Sessions (R-TX), Bill Huizenga (R-MI), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Ken Calvert (R-CA), Tom Emmer (R-MN), Tim Walberg (R-MI), Elise M. Stefanik (R-NY), Glenn Thompson (R-PA)

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 (Introduced in House)
• Congress.gov
• Data: GovInfo BILLSTATUS bulk data (Library of Congress), BILLSTATUS-115hr2432.xml <https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS/115/hr>

Record fed-us-cong115-hr2432 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong115 · updated 2026-11-15 by psicol fed-bills-cong115