03/04 16:36-DJ: Rubin Presses Congress For Budgetary Spending On Year 2000
Problem
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin told Congress
Wednesday that massive funding is needed for the "enormous" challenge of
preparing government computer systems for the date change in the year 2000.
Rubin testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Treasury,
Postal Service and General Government in an effort to justify his department's
fiscal year 1999 budget request to deal with the Year 2000 problem. Rubin said
Treasury has made good progress so far on the problem, but it still needs work
- and money.
The Year 2000 dilemma, or Y2K, facing companies and governments world-wide
concerns the rapidly approaching changeover to a year ending in "00," when many
computers will read the new date as 1900 instead of 2000. Analysts and
regulators fear widespread systemic breakdowns and corporate failures if
computers aren't adjusted.
"The challenge is enormous, but we have made significant progress thus far
and continue to be on schedule for almost all our mission critical systems,"
Rubin told Congress.
The Clinton administration's fiscal year 1999 budget includes $352 million
to address the Year 2000 problem at Treasury, Rubin noted. The department's
date-change needs are also part of the administration's fiscal year 1998
supplemental-budget request, which includes up to $250 million for Y2K, Rubin
said.
Aside from dealing with the year 2000 problem, Rubin touched on three other
key areas for which Treasury needs its requested $12.3 billion fiscal 1999
funding: departmental offices, the International Revenue Service and law
enforcement.
Regarding ongoing reforms at the much-criticized IRS, Rubin noted, "while
important steps have been taken, the great bulk of the challenges lies ahead."
The IRS in the past year has been ridiculed for abusive tax-collection
procedures and bad management
The "departmental-offices" category includes tax policy, international and
domestic economic policy, and the central management functions of Treasury like
human resources and technology. The agency also is burdened with an outdated
computer system.
Other agencies under Treasury's roof include: the Customs bureau, which
fights narcotics trafficking and money laundering in addition to its
traditional customs duties; the Bureau of Public Debt, which manages the
federal government's debt; the Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms.
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