 | |
| |
TechnologyDaily Mobile
Y2K: Moving To The End Game
With Republicans and Democrats fighting for the hearts, and wallets, of Silicon Valley, a protracted battle over Y2K liability legislation on Capitol Hill could leave both parties with few friends in the high tech community.
While the industry maintains its quest for a pragmatic solution to the potential flood of litigation related to the 2000 date change, lawmakers in the House and Senate are playing the politics of the 20th century. What started out as a quiet piece of liability reform legislation, has turned into one of the first full-scale battles between the parties for the loyalties of the high tech industry.
As the House prepares to take up its Y2K liability bill, H.R. 775, this week, Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-MO, sent out a warning to his colleagues that the legislation is the result of "partisan political games" played by the Republican leadership.
"Rather than address the Y2K issue responsibly, Republicans have chosen to use H.R. 775 as a campaign fundraising tool to drive a wedge between Democrats who principally oppose overreaching tort reform legislation, and the high-tech community that is legitimately seeking legislative solutions," Gephardt said in a May 10 letter to House Democrats.
Just two weeks earlier, Senate Republicans took advantage of a vote that stalled further action on S. 96, despite word of a bipartisan compromise.
"Democrats sided with trial lawyers who are beginning to view the rapidly growing high-tech sector as a rich new target for litigation," said an April 29 alert sent by the National Republican Senatorial Committee to Washington, DC-based high tech associations.
A spokesman for the campaign committee responsible for the flier said he didn't think it would detract from ongoing compromise negotiations between Senate Republicans and Democrats.
"We'd be falling down on the job if we didn't expose what the Democrats are doing," the spokesman said.
"We're trying to demonstrate to Silicon Valley and other tech areas who represents them," said Stuart Roy, the campaign committee's communications director. "It's the Republicans voting for freedom on the Internet and the companies."
But the bottom line for most high tech companies and their Washington representatives, they say, is a practical solution rather than political posturing.
"I think coming out and doing anything to turn this into a partisan battle is bad at this point," said Marc Pearl, general counsel for the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA). "It has never been that way for us."
The House is prepared to vote this week on H.R. 775 while the Senate version, S. 96, remains stalled in procedural limbo. Both bills aim to limit legal claims against businesses that legitimately take steps to limit potential problems caused by the Y2K computer glitch. A bipartisan compromise in the Senate, led by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-CT, tames some of the legal reforms still contained in the House version.
Some House Democrats claim that Republicans have been unwilling to work on a compromise in their zeal to score political points against the Clinton administration. They see the issue as a potential wedge that can be driven between two of the favored and most generous support bases for Vice President/presidential candidate Al Gore: the red-hot high tech industry, and trial lawyers, long-time Clinton and Democratic Party loyalists.
"We're engaged in discussions with a Republican leadership that believes it's better to have a political argument than an immediate solution to the Y2K problem," said one House Democratic staffer. "High tech has never wanted any issue to be partisan, and that's certainly true of Y2K with its certain deadline."
A majority of Democrats have sided with their traditional allies, the trial lawyers and their key lobbying arm, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA). Some Republicans want to take advantage of this relationship and force Democrats, and especially Gore, to choose between the lawyers and the high tech industry. The White House has threatened to veto S. 96 and H.R. 775.
"Anything that happens or doesn't happen between now and November, they'll use as a campaign issue," said a source close to the trial lawyers. "If there's a [Y2K] crisis, they'll blame Gore. The best thing that could happen for Gore is something minimal passes and there's no disaster."
Despite the political wrangling on the Hill, the business coalition led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers maintains it, too, is working for a nonpartisan, nonpolitical outcome to Y2K liability legislation. The business groups, however, have long been allies to Republicans on legal reform issues.
"I certainly believe from the coalition standpoint, we've reminded everybody this is not a political issue," said NAM General Counsel Jan Amundson. "It's not the Republicans pushing, it's the issue."
She warned that a White House veto "would not bode well" for Clinton or Gore, and that a narrow bill tailored just for high tech companies wouldn't fly, either.
"The White House has really got to face the music," Amundson said. "The rest of business is not going to put up with a carve out" for high tech.
Although some high tech groups have said that they would be satisfied with legislation drawn more narrowly than what's currently in play, they have hung in with the coalition with the hope of getting some Y2K protection. Nine high-tech associations sent letters to each senator urging their support of the Dodd compromise plan for S. 96.
Coalition leaders saw this as an important move to show they were still all on the same page, despite rumors that some high tech groups were trying to strike their own deals.
"There are a lot of members who want to hear from industry," said Connie Correll, spokeswoman for the Information Technology Industry Council, which has also sent a letter to the Hill. "Like anything on the Hill, politics are involved in everything. We know what we need to do to get a bill passed."
Pearl said while he'd love to believe that the tech industry is so powerful it could get whatever legislation it wanted passed, the reality of Y2K liability legislation is that a larger business group was needed to push the Hill into action.
"The IT industry might have been successful putting part of the legislation together," he said. "But we all need each other. Everybody gets something out of it."
Despite the coalition's claims for unity, there's no denying that politics will continue to embroil the bill. Both parties want to score points with the high tech community, while showing the other is out of touch.
Republicans "believe they have serious political problems in California," the Democratic staffer said. "But why should the high tech community suffer because Republicans lack political support in California?"
Pearl said it's a battle for the future.
"Everybody wants the new kid on the block," he said. "Therefore, who doesn't want to hook their rope to that star?"
—by Rebecca S. Weiner
NEW FEATURE
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
