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Y2K Activity Heats Up in Washington
By Richard Nunno
Over the past month, four congressional hearings have focused on Year
2000 issues. On April 15, 1998, the Commissioner of the IRS testified to the
House Subcommittee on Government Management, Information, and
Technology, regarding the management options presented in a GAO audit
of the IRS FY1997 custodial financial statements. In his remarks, the
Commissioner expressed concerns about the impact of proposed IRS reforms
on the agency's ability to meet Year 2000 compliance schedules. The GAO
Assistant Comptroller General testified that "If IRS is unable to make its
mission critical systems Year 2000 compliant, IRS could be rendered unable
to properly process tax returns, issue refunds, correctly calculate interest and
penalties, effectively collect taxes, or prepare accurate financial statements
and other financial reports."
On April 21, 1998, the House Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on
Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, held
a hearing to investigate the Year 2000 readiness of the agencies it oversees.
Witnesses included officials from the Departments of Health and Human
Services (HHS), Education, and Labor, and the Social Security
Administration (SSA).
An official from the HHS listed the following obstacles to the completion of
HHS's preparations for the Year 2000: HHS's contingency plans, its
workload/resource priorities competing with other HHS activities, testing
strategies, certification of system compliance by independent evaluators,
and the scheduling of many activities required to ensure that all systems are
compliant. The witness stated that "the bulk of Medicare contractors and
possibly some HHS agencies will not be compliant by HHS' accelerated date
[December 31, 1998]." Another HHS witness emphasized the problems
(discussed below) related to the efforts of the Health Care Finance
Administration (HCFA) to make its systems and processes Year 2000
compliant, and HHS's efforts to ensure the Year 2000 compliance of
biomedical equipment. This involved sending over 16,000 letters to
biomedical equipment manufacturers, urging them to identify non-compliant
products, and to provide information to the Food and Drug Administration on
actions they are taking to ensure compliance.
Officials from SSA reviewed its Disability Determination Services interface,
its data exchanges with federal agencies, states and third parties, and its
contingency planning.
On April 23, 1998, an official of the General Accounting Office testified to
the House Committee on Resources on the risks presented by the Year 2000
Problem to key operations of the Department of the Interior.
On April 28, 1998, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and
Transportation held a hearing with the following witnesses: Senator Bennett,
a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FED),
the Deputy Secretaries of Commerce and Transportation, the Chairman of
the Federal Communications Commission, and the Chairman of the New
York Stock Exchange. At the hearing, the FED official stated that U.S.
businesses have reported that they expect to spend $50 billion correcting
their computers for the Year 2000 Problem, and that estimate is expected to
rise. The FCC Chairman described FCC's efforts to motivate the
telecommunications industry to make their systems Year 2000 compliant and
informing the public of their risks. Committee members and witnesses raised
concerns that the telephone companies were not sharing information with
the public or other industry groups on the status of their Year 2000
conversion efforts. The Commerce Department official expressed concern
that small-and medium-sized businesses may not be focusing on the Year
2000 Problem within their systems.
In addition, two new Year 2000 reports have been issued by the General
Accounting Office: (1) Defense Computers: Year 2000 Computer Problems
Threaten DOD Operations (April 30, 1998), and (2) Department of the
Interior: Year 2000 Computing Crisis Presents Risk of Disruption to Key
Operations (April 22, 1998).
The Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem has
appointed its members, including Senators Bennett (Chairman), Dodd
(ranking Democrat-CT), Kyl (R-AZ), Collins (R-ME), Moynihan (D-NY),
Bingaman (D-NM), and Smith (R-OR), with Stevens (R-AK) and Byrd (D-WV)
as ex-officio members. On April 29, Senator Bennett (R-UT) introduced a bill
(S. 2000) to ensure that businesses, financial markets, and the federal
government are taking adequate steps to resolve the year 2000 computer
problems. The measure has been referred to the Governmental Affairs
Committee.
On Thursday, May 7, 1998 (after this article was submitted) the House Ways
and Means Committee held a hearing focusing on the Year 2000 Problems
of the Departments of Treasury, Health and Human Services, and the Social
Security Administration. |
