Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, obviously if we had a different President and Vice President, we would have a stronger bill here today, but I think it shows the willingness of our side of the aisle to try to get some kind of bill and some kind of protections for American industry, particularly the high technology industries that are so at risk with the Y2K bug that we are here today with the bill that the President can sign, and now that he has indicated he will sign it, he has given permission to Democrats who opposed this to vote for it. I think, as I look at this, going back to what was originally offered on the House side, their original bill, this is a much stronger bill in final than was offered on the other side of the aisle in their substitute originally. I just want to highlight some of those. The conference report, for example, grants benefits in consumer and business. They excluded consumer exceptions, cases from the protections of this bill. The original bill on the Democratic side, their substitute that they tendered, liability of defendants is joint and several subject to the court's discretion in that it should be proportional for a defendant of minimal responsibility. This mandates proportional liability unless there are insolvent defendants, in which case the injured party is made whole. This is a far more complete protection to companies than was originally offered on the other side.”