US efforts to address the Year 2000 problem got a boost Wednesday, when members of the Senate Judiciary Committee reached consensus on a bill allowing companies to share critical information on millennium bug eradication.
The bipartisan bill, the Year 2000 Information Disclosure Act, or SB2392, is essentially a compromise between President Clinton's so-called Good Samaritan legislation and a similar House bill subsequently introduced by Representatives David Dreier (R-Los Angeles) and Anna Eshoo (D-Palo Alto).
"Hopefully, it will encourage people to share information, so there's a dialogue to help identify problem areas and rectify them," said Lawrence Kraus, president of the US Chamber of Commerce's Institute for Legal Reform, which supports the bill.
The current compromise, hammered out by Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and ranking Democrat Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), encourages companies to share Y2K strategies, by reducing their exposure to liability lawsuits.
The bill does not provide liability protection for hardware or software programs that fall victim to the bug or for information that public companies are compelled to disclose to the Securities Exchange Commission.
"If the Judiciary [Committee] comes up with a consensus bill and the Senate passes it, the role of the Dreier bill will have been served," said Brian Bieron, a legislative assistant to Dreier.
Specifically, the revised Senate bill encourages information sharing by providing a safe haven for allegedly incorrect Year 2000 statements, unless a plaintiff can prove such information was false or provided recklessly with "the intent to deceive."
Companies have feared that by sharing details of their Y2K troubleshooting, the information could come back to haunt them in the courts.
To help promote information exchange between the private and public sectors, the bill ensures that the government could not release business information to a third party without the approval of the provider.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a Thursday vote on the bill. If passed, as expected, the legislation would move to the Senate floor for a vote.
"We're hopeful that this can move forward because of the bipartisan support. Other than the trial lawyers, there's a pretty good consensus that this is a good idea," said Kraus.
