It was several days before Christmas when the phone rang at Angel Flight. The voice on the other end of the line said she only had four weeks to live. Her only hope was an experimental drug treatment in San Antonio, but with a mountain of medical bills, she could not afford the flight.

A few minutes later an urgent email would go out, responses would come back in, and within a few hours a pilot would be located. The patient would be flown to San Antonio for her treatment, and upon arrival a car would be waiting to drive her to the hospital. She would never see a bill for any of her transportation and her hope of life was far closer to becoming a reality.

Founded in Virginia Beach, Angel Flight is a non-profit organization that offers free, long-distance transportation for medical care to remove financial burden from patients. Its volunteer pilots are stockbrokers, realtors, private businessmen, retired Air Force pilots, commercial pilots, lawyers, doctors, crop dusters, and others. Every year, on their free time, these pilots fly over 10,000 patients nationwide. Some pilots fly one or two mercy flights a year – others may fly as many as 50 flights – all are flown at the pilot’s expense.

Angel Flight is just one organization involved in non-profit public benefit flying. Last year, volunteer pilot organizations provided long-distance, no-cost transportation for over 40,000 patients and their escorts in times of special need. Other organizations flew missions ranging from environmental observation to organ transportation. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, significant quantities of blood and blood products were transported by volunteer pilots.

In the last several years, however, the cost of insuring volunteer pilot organizations from liability suits has become astronomical. Yearly insurance that was available for $1,000 a few years ago now costs more than $25,000. Not only are talented volunteers afraid of flying mercy flights for fear of being sued, most non-profit volunteer pilot organizations, their board of directors, paid staff and non-flying volunteers have no liability protection. 

Despite this, in more than 25 years of operating, Angel Flight has never had a fatal accident. Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, Edward Boyer, founder of Angel Flight said, “The fear of liability is far greater than the reality of liability, but if that fear means they can't get insurance, some groups will stop the flights.”

This week the House of Representatives stepped in with commonsense legislation to solve this problem and other blatant examples of lawsuit abuse. The Volunteer Pilot Organization Protection Act passed the House of Representatives on Tuesday September 14th. This legislation creates specific liability protection for non-profit volunteer pilot organizations flying for public benefit. With my support, the House also passed legislation to protect those who donate much-needed firefighting equipment to volunteer fire departments. It is now up to the Senate to pass these important reforms. 

While we often think of charity as mentoring a child, caring for an elderly neighbor, teaching someone to read, or donating food and clothing, it is important to remember that opportunities for generosity present themselves in myriad ways. Too often we under-estimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, or an honest compliment, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. Cumulatively these acts, combined with organized and corporate charity, have the potential to transform communities and even save lives. 

With commonsense legislation like the bills passed this week, we continue to ensure that America’s abundant tradition of generosity and charity will not be undermined by a few who use our judicial system for ill.