The millennium bug bill battle
The tech industry's Washington lobby tries to play both sides of the aisle. Is it being pragmatic -- or just naive?

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By Jake Tapper

April 30, 1999 | WASHINGTON -- High-tech moguls throughout the nation lie awake at night worrying about the Y2K computer glitch. But their representatives in the capital are working overtime to stave off the swarms of trial attorneys they fear will converge upon their industry's coffers when the bug rears its head.

For that reason, at the end of 1998, the high-tech lobby joined a coalition to work with Congress on a bill to protect businesses from these lawsuits -- to limit their legal liability, come what Y2K disaster may.

In its scant years in Washington, the technology lobby has built a credible name for itself; it is respected as both pragmatic and non-partisan. Just last year, the passage of the industry's Information and Readiness Disclosure Act was a model of cross-party accomplishment and good will. So you'd think that its legislative goals on Y2K litigation reform, which were characteristically modest, wouldn't be such a hard sell.

But high tech is a new player in this game, and things didn't work out so well for the industry's leaders and lobbyists -- though they may not know that yet.

As of Thursday afternoon, the bill they'd hitched their wagon to, sponsored by Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, was languishing in parliamentary purgatory. That had little to do with the substance of the bill itself, but rather occurred as a result of a dispute between Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., on the ability of Democrats to offer non-germane amendments.

But how McCain's bill evolved -- and what went on behind the scenes as it did -- reveals quite a bit about the high-tech lobby's less-than-surefootedness on the playing fields of Capitol Hill. And, more importantly, the behavior of some high-tech lobbyists during the Y2K debate has made more than a few powerful enemies.

"They've been a freakin' pain in the butt," says one Machiavellian lobbyist who worked with the high-tech lobby as a member of the business community's Y2K coalition. "They tried to cut their own deals. When this is over, you'll see: conservative Republicans are going to try to scalp 'em."

Next page | When the tech industry tangles with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who wins?