[WASHINGTON] 'Y2K Activity Heats Up in Washington '
'May 12, 1998
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.
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