[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 114 (Tuesday, July 30, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H8801-H8802]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   HOW LONG WILL WE CONTINUE TO WAIT TO SOLVE THE YEAR 2000 PROBLEM?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaTourette). Under a previous order of 
the House, the gentleman from California [Mr. Horn] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. HORN. Mr. Speaker, a few months ago our Subcommittee on 
Government Management, Information and Technology held an extensive 
hearing on what is known as the year 2000 problem. That is a problem 
for those who have inputted month-day-year in most computers over the 
last 30 years. Three decades ago, most computers had little capacity 
for storage. Thus, a 2-digit figure represented the year instead of 4 
digits. In other words, instead of 1966, the year was entered 66. So 
when it comes to the year 2000 and the computer registers 2000, it will 
only register 00 based on the two spaces for the year software. Thirty 
years ago it was difficult to find space in a computer and somebody had 
the bright idea: Let's save at least a few bits of spaces when we put 
dates in by inputting only the last part of the date, not the century 
part of the date.
   Mr. Speaker, this will be a major problem. It is estimated by 
Gartner Associates, a major consulting firm, that it will take $600 
billion worldwide to solve this problem. America is responsible for 
half of the computing usage on this planet, and it will take about $300 
billion for both private and public entities to make the needed 
conversions. Gartner Associates believes that conversion by the Federal 
Government might well cost $30 billion to deal with this matter.
  On April 29, I had the staff of the subcommittee send an extensive 
survey to the 24 Cabinet departments and agencies. We now have the 
results. In essence, these are some of the results:
  1. Major departments are only in the initial planning stages of the 
Year 2000 effort.
  2. Even the most advanced agencies have not reached the final stages 
of the solution.
  3. Only six agencies have any cost estimates.
  4. The Department of Defense has not yet completed its inventory of 
computer software code which needs to be converted.
  5. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration does not 
anticipate having a plan completed until March 1997.
  6. The Department of Transportation simply did not respond to the 
questions as of this date. Some departments started in on this effort 
the day after our survey arrived. Little attention has been paid to 
this coming crunch by many in the executive branch.
  7. The Department of Energy did not begin to address the Year 2000 
issue until a week after they received the subcommittee's survey.
  Most of the departments that are in the initial planning stages need 
to have their systems inventoried and fixed by 1998. If they do not do 
so by that time, expert resources will be increasingly scarce because 
the private sector, State and local government will be using those 
resources to solve their own computer conversion problems.
  Various internal codes of our computing equipment need to be changed. 
Some of it is just reentering the 4-digit year into new software: You 
would put in 1996, not just 96, so when you hit the year 2000, it is 
not just 00, but it is 2000 and you can subtract 1996 from 2000.
  These Federal departments and agencies must ``get with it'' over the 
next year and a half. They need to complete their plans. They need to 
inventory and fix millions of lines of internal computer code while 
simultaneously meeting agency goals.
  Basically, we asked these agencies if they had a plan, was there a 
program

[[Page H8802]]

manager? What was the estimated cost? And were they responsive to our 
dozen or so questions?
  We have had a few stars in this affair that have been working on this 
problem systematically. We see that the Agency for International 
Development [AID]--responsible for foreign aid operations, Office of 
Personnel Management [OPM], Small Business, and, most important, the 
Social Security Administration received an ``A.'' The Social Security 
``A'' is really the first of the ``A''s. Social Security did not need 
any prod. In Social Security, an able staff has been working on this 
problem--and rightly so--since 1989. They believe that by 1998 they 
will complete going through all of the Social Security files which 
affect people's benefits and pensions. We gave a very strong ``A'' to 
them.
  These are only two in the ``B'' category. By the way, I do not grade 
on a curve. As a professor, I graded on an absolute. Education is in 
the ``B'' category. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is a ``B''. Then 
after those six there are 18 below them. The three ``C''s, are followed 
by 10 ``D''s and 4 ``F''s. And there are dozens of other agencies that 
comprise all of the rest of the Federal Government.
  Serious attention needs to be given to this by the responsible 
officials in the White House who coordinate management matters within 
the executive branch. They are a little weak on that. But the Office of 
Management and Budget needs to give this effort its full attention 
because both the appropriations and authorizing committees of the House 
will be expecting them to ask for the needed resources, or have a plan 
to reprogram the needed resources.
  Let's get on with it. It is a serious problem that could affect each 
of us.
  Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record the following material in 
connection with my remarks:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                          Does the              
                                                                                        agency have    Did the  
                                                                Does the    Is there a    any cost      agency  
                                                      Grade   agency have   year 2000    estimates    respond to
                                                              a year 2000    program      for year       the    
                                                                 plan?       manager?       2000      questions?
                                                                                         solution?              
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Aid..................................        A            X            X            X            X
Personnel (OPM)....................................        A            X            X            X            X
Small Business.....................................        A            X            X            X            X
Social Security....................................        A            X            X            X            X
Education..........................................        B            X            X            X            X
Nuclear Regulatory.................................        B            X            X  ...........            X
State..............................................        B            X            X            X            X
Defense............................................        C  ...........            X            X            X
Treasury...........................................        C            X            X  ...........            X
Science Foundation.................................        C            X  ...........  ...........            X
Agriculture........................................        D  ...........            X  ...........            X
Commerce...........................................        D  ...........            X  ...........            X
Environmental Protection...........................        D  ...........            X  ...........            X
General Services...................................        D  ...........            X  ...........            X
Health and Human Services..........................        D  ...........            X  ...........            X
Housing (HUD)......................................        D  ...........            X  ...........            X
Interior...........................................        D  ...........            X  ...........            X
Justice............................................        D  ...........            X  ...........            X
NASA...............................................        D  ...........            X  ...........            X
Veterans Affairs...................................        D  ...........            X  ...........            X
FEMA...............................................        F  ...........  ...........  ...........            X
Labor..............................................        F  ...........  ...........  ...........            X
Energy.............................................        F  ...........  ...........  ...........  ...........
Transportation.....................................        F  ...........  ...........  ...........  ...........
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Prepared for Subcommittee Chairman Stephen Horn, Subcommittee on Government Management, Information, and       
  Technology.                                                                                                   

  

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