ITAA Offers Congress Five Step Plan on Y2K
Arlington, Va--(BUSINESS WIRE0--May 7, 1998--With one eye on a potential train wreck of devastating proportions, the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) today offered Congress a five step "wellness" plan on the Year 2000 software conversion. ITAA termed Y2K the "single most important information technology challenge facing government and industry today."
Appearing before the House Ways and Means Committee Oversight Subcommittee, ITAA President Harris Miller said the focus of conversation among the best-informed on this issue is how to clean up after the train wreck. "As a society, we are on the point of conceding failure...it's crazy. It's frustrating. It cannot be happening. But it is."
Miller outlined a five point plan for Congress to assist in warding off global disaster: --Step up to the challenge by accepting the mantle of leadership and adopting a sense of ownership; --Spend the money required to fix the problem inside government and understand the status of external trading parties; --Provide the public education required to help citizens understand the issue and concentrate their attention moving forward; --Provide rational public policy solutions to the issue, bringing greater creativity to bear; --Exercise the discipline necessary to allow existing systems, such as those at the Internal Revenue Service, to be fixed without increasing the risk of failure by passing new laws which impose additional requirements.
"Congress does not want to be placed in the position of wishing it had taken this issue more seriously while there was time left to address the challenges," Miller said.
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. Learn more about ITAA and its positions on the issues by connecting to its home page at itaa.org.
CONTACT:
ITAA
Bob Cohen
703/284-5333
bcohen@itaa.org
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