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Thursday December 11, 6:13 pm Eastern Time
Company Press Release
ITAA Calls on President to Appoint National Y2K Task Force
ARLINGTON, Va--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 11, 1997--The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) has called on President Clinton to greet the new year by working to head off widespread information technology disruptions in the Year 2000. In a letter to the President today, ITAA President Harris Miller called on the White House to create a National Year 2000 Task Force to help the nation take the necessary remedial steps and make a seamless transition to the new millennium.
Suggesting that Vice President Al Gore be appointed to lead the task force, Miller said its purpose should be to 1) increase attention to solutions in the Federal government, 2) assist states and localities in solving their Year 2000 challenges, and 3) begin tracking the implementation of Year 2000 modifications in the commercial sector and urge speedier action, especially for critical industries and small and medium sized enterprises.
''Such a Task Force, including representatives of all segments of our national life which provide and use...information systems, would be tasked with bringing greater attention, and urging increased action to address this situation. Our public policy makers must make greater use of the ''Bully Pulpit,'' and such vehicles as the Vice President's National Performance Review initiative to provide, respectively, increased governmental activity and marketplace assurances to this matter,'' Miller said.
In his letter, Miller said the federal government must act expeditiously to:
Provide the requisite national leadership to move all sectors of the economy to prepare critical business and infrastructure systems;
Encourage U.S. trading partners, global financial markets and defense allies to confront the situation directly and immediately;
Move beyond the awareness and assessment stages of preparation and into the renovation, validation and implementation stages; and
Deal effectively with state and local governments to assure system interoperability and the smooth flow of business transactions and information between government agencies at all levels.
To this end, Miller proposed a series of steps, including the use of separate budget line items for Y2K related work within federal agencies; Department of Labor tracking of the availability of skilled personnel needed to make these preparations; mobilization of the United States Trade Representative, the Department of State, the Department of Commerce, and the United States Ambassador to the United Nations to monitor the preparations being made by the global community in readiness for the next century; procurement reforms to allow federal agencies to gain the maximum practical benefit from commercial Y2K product and services firms; and a vigorous public education campaign, directed especially at small and medium enterprises which may not understand the full implications of or have the resources to attack adequately the Year 2000 challenges.
ITAA consists of 11,000 direct and affiliate members throughout the U.S. which produce products and services in the IT industry. The Association plays a leading role in public policy issues of concern to the IT industry, including taxes, intellectual property, telecommunications law, encryption, securities litigation reform, and human resources policy. ITAA members range from the smallest IT start ups to industry leaders in the software, services, systems integration, telecommunications, Internet, and computer consulting fields. ITAA is Secretariat for the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) and will co-host the 1998 World Congress on Information Technology XI in Fairfax, VA. Learn more about ITAA and its positions on the issues by connecting to its web site at itaa.org . |
