[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 723 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 723

 To provide regulatory amnesty for defendants who are unable to comply 
with federally enforceable requirements because of factors related to a 
                          Y2K system failure.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 25, 1999

  Mr. Inhofe introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
           referred to the Committee on Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To provide regulatory amnesty for defendants who are unable to comply 
with federally enforceable requirements because of factors related to a 
                          Y2K system failure.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Y2K Regulatory Amnesty Act of 
1999''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Y2K failure.--The term ``Y2K failure'' means any 
        failure by any device or system (including any computer system 
        and any microchip or integrated circuit embedded in another 
        device or product), or any software, firmware, or other set or 
        collection of processing instructions, however constructed, in 
        processing, calculating, comparing, sequencing, displaying, 
        storing, transmitting, or receiving date-related data, 
        including--
                    (A) the failure to accurately administer or account 
                for transitions or comparisons from, into, and between 
                the 20th and 21st centuries, and between 1999 and 2000; 
                or
                    (B) the failure to recognize or accurately process 
                any specific date, and the failure accurately to 
                account for the status of the year 2000 as a leap year.
            (2) Y2K upset.--The term ``Y2K upset''--
                    (A) means an exceptional incident involving 
                temporary noncompliance with applicable federally 
                enforceable requirements because of factors related to 
                a Y2K failure that are beyond the reasonable control of 
                the defendant charged with compliance; and
                    (B) does not include--
                            (i) noncompliance with applicable federally 
                        enforceable requirements that constitutes or 
                        would create an imminent threat to public 
                        health or safety;
                            (ii) noncompliance to the extent caused by 
                        operational error or negligence;
                            (iii) lack of reasonable preventative 
                        maintenance; or
                            (iv) lack of preparedness for Y2K.

SEC. 3. CONDITIONS NECESSARY FOR A DEMONSTRATION OF A Y2K UPSET.

    A defendant who wishes to establish the affirmative defense of Y2K 
upset shall demonstrate, through properly signed, contemporaneous 
operating logs, or other relevant evidence that--
            (1) the defendant previously made a good faith effort to 
        effectively remediate Y2K problems;
            (2) a Y2K upset occurred as a result of a Y2K system 
        failure or other Y2K emergency;
            (3) noncompliance with the applicable federally enforceable 
        requirement was unavoidable in the face of a Y2K emergency or 
        was intended to prevent the disruption of critical functions or 
        services that could result in the harm of life or property;
            (4) upon identification of noncompliance the defendant 
        invoking the defense began immediate actions to remediate any 
        violation of federally enforceable requirements; and
            (5) the defendant submitted notice to the appropriate 
        Federal regulatory authority of a Y2K upset within 72 hours 
        from the time that it became aware of the upset.

SEC. 4. GRANT OF A Y2K UPSET.

    Subject to the other provisions of this Act, the Y2K upset defense 
shall be a complete defense to any action brought as a result of 
noncompliance with federally enforceable requirements for any defendant 
who establishes by a preponderance of the evidence that the conditions 
set forth in section 3 are met.

SEC. 5. LENGTH OF Y2K UPSET.

    The maximum allowable length of the Y2K upset shall be not more 
than 30 days beginning on the date of the upset unless granted specific 
relief by the appropriate regulatory authority.

SEC. 6. VIOLATION OF A Y2K UPSET.

    Fraudulent use of the Y2K upset defense provided for in this Act 
shall be subject to penalties provided in section 1001 of title 18, 
United States Code.
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