Joe Lieberman: “Mr. President, Congress really needs to act to address the probable explosion of litigation over the Y2K problem. It…”

“Mr. President, Congress really needs to act to address the probable explosion of litigation over the Y2K problem. It needs to act quickly. This is a problem that has an activating date. It is nothing that will wait for Congress to act. It will be self-starting, self-arriving. Therefore, we must act in preparation for it. Obviously we are now familiar, if we had not been before this extended debate, with the problem caused by the Y2K bug. Although no one can predict with certainty what will happen at the turning of the year into the new century and the new millennium, there is little doubt that there will be Y2K-caused failures, possibly on a large scale, and that those failures could bring both minor inconveniences and significant disruptions in our lives. This could pose a serious problem for our economy, and if there are widespread failures, it will surely be in all of our interests for American businesses to focus on how they can continue providing the goods and services we all rely on in the face of those disruptions rather than fretting over and financing defense of lawsuits.”