[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 134 (Wednesday, September 25, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11312-S11313]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. MOYNIHAN:

  S. 2131. A bill to establish a bipartisan national commission on the 
year 2000 computer problem; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
Transportation.


THE YEAR 2000 COMPUTER PROBLEM NATIONS COMMISSION ESTABLISHMENT ACT OF 
                                  1996

  Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, I rise today to offer my last in a 
series of warnings to the 104th Congress. I warn of a problem which may 
have extreme negative economic and national security consequences in 
the year 2000 and beyond. It is the problem of the Year 2000 Time Bomb, 
which has to do with the transition of computer programs from the 20th 
to the 21st century. Throughout history, much forewarning of the 
millennium has been foolishly apocalyptic, but this problem is not 
trifling.
  Simply put, many computer programs will read January 1, 2000 as 
January 1, 1900. Outwardly innocuous, the need to reprogram computers' 
internal clocks will not only cost billions, but if left undone--or not 
done in time--all levels of government, the business community, the 
medical community, and the defense establishment could face a maelstrom 
of adverse effects. Widespread miscalculation of taxes by the Internal 
Revenue Service; the possible failure of some Defense Department 
weapons systems; the possibility of misdiagnosis or improper medical 
treatment due to errors in medical records; and the possibility of 
widespread disruption of business operations due to errors in business 
records.
  Mr. Lanny J. Davis, in his thoughtful analysis of the dilemma 
presented in an article in the Washington Post of September, 15, 1996, 
cited one industry expert who called the Y2K defect--as the computer 
literate call it--``the most devastating virus to ever infect the 
world's business and information technology systems.'' Mr. Davis also 
tabulated the cost: ``Current estimates for business and government 
range from $50 billion to $75 billion--and will only increase as 2000 
draws closer.''

  Moreover, it seems the problem is not limited to main frame computers

[[Page S11313]]

as once was thought. In an article entitled ``Even Some New Software 
Won't Work in 2000,'' the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, 
September 18, 1996, that owners of personal computers will be affected 
as well. Mr. Lee Gomes wrote: ``In fact, tens of millions of PC owners 
will be affected. Current or very recent versions of such best sellers 
as Quicken, FileMaker Pro and at least one brand-new program from 
Microsoft will stumble at the approach of Jan. 1, 2000. There will be 
hardware hiccups, too. Many PC owners will have to take extra steps to 
teach their systems about the new millennium.''
  Early in 1996, John Westergaard first informed me of this impending 
problem. I asked the Congressional Research Service to assess its 
extent. In July, CRS reported back and substantiated the doomsayers' 
worst fears. I immediately wrote to the President, alerted him to the 
problem and suggested that a presidential aide--a general perhaps--be 
appointed to take responsibility for assuring that all Federal agencies 
and Government contractors be Y2K date-compliant by January 1, 1999. No 
word back yet.

  Over the past few weeks I have periodically updated my colleagues in 
the Senate as to the nature of this problem, the possible costs of the 
problem, and advances in thinking about the problem. The business 
community has begun to stir, but it seems all is quiet here in the 
Nation's capital, or nearly quiet.
  Today, I am introducing a bill to establish a nonpartisan commission 
on the year 2000 computer problem. It will be composed of 15 members--
five selected by the President; 5, the President pro tempore of the 
Senate, and 5, the Speaker of the House of Representatives--in 
consultation with the minority leaders respectively. The commission 
will study the problem, analyze its costs, and provide immediate 
recommendations and requirements for the Secretary of Defense, the 
President, and Congress. Because of the urgency of this problem, the 
commission will complete its study and make its report to the President 
by December 31, 1997. The onus is now on us to see this bill passed.
  I urge my colleagues to recognize this problem, and help establish 
this Commission. As Mr. Davis warned, we have begun a ``Countdown to a 
Meltdown.'' The longer we delay, the more costly the solution and the 
more dire the consequences. The computer has been a blessing; if we do 
not act in a timely fashion, however, it could become the curse of the 
age.
  I ask unanimous consent that the Wall Street Journal article of 
Wednesday, September 18, 1996, entitled ``Even Some New Software Won't 
Work in 2000,'' by Lee Gomes, be included in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

             [From the Wall Street Journal, Sept. 18, 1996]

               Even Some New Software Won't Work in 2000

                             (By Lee Gomes)

       In his syndicated newspaper column this past July, 
     Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates answered an anxious 
     reader's question about whether PC owners have to worry about 
     the ``Year 2000 problem,'' which is now roiling the world of 
     corporate mainframes.
       ``Most PC users won't be affected,'' wrote Mr. Gates. 
     ``There shouldn't be much of an issue with up-to-date 
     software. Microsoft software, for instance, won't cause 
     problems.''
       The reply may have been reassuring, but it was also wrong. 
     In fact, tens of millions of PC owners will be affected. 
     Current or very recent versions of such best-sellers as 
     Quicken, File Maker Pro and at least one brand-new program 
     from Microsoft will stumble at the approach of Jan. 1, 2000. 
     There will be hardware hiccups, too. Many PC owners will have 
     to take extra steps to teach their systems about the new 
     millennium.
       The date rollover will trip up computers because 
     programmers have tended to use only two-digit numbers to 
     represent years--``96'' instead of ``1996''--assuming that 
     all dates would be in the 20th century.
       As a result, 40 months from now, unfixed computers will 
     calculate, for example, that ``00'' is ``1900,'' and thus an 
     earlier date than ``99,'' and decline to perform certain 
     functions.
       The good news is that fixing any Year 2000 problems on PCs 
     will seem like a picnic compared with the data-processing 
     nightmare now occurring in the corporate world. For PC 
     owners, a few simple steps will usually take care of things--
     assuming users can identify the problem.
       But, as Mr. Gates's two-month-old column suggests, the fact 
     that the Year 2000 is a PC issue at all will come as a 
     surprise to many, including some in the industry. 
     At Microsoft, the company has realized only in the past 
     few weeks that some of its own software is not ``Year 2000 
     compliant.'' Many other software companies, when first 
     asked, said they had no Year 2000 difficulties, only to 
     call back a few days later to report that they had found 
     some after all.
       Unlike mainframe makers, though, PC companies don't have 
     much excuse for having problems. Mainframe programmers took 
     short cuts during the '60s and '70s because computer memory 
     was then a precious commodity. But some PC programmers 
     followed that lead, even after memory was no longer in short 
     supply and the new millennium was much closer. The moral: 
     Even in an industry whose leaders often portray themselves as 
     social and technical visionaries, companies can suffer from 
     old-fashioned short-sightedness.
       So what exactly is the problem? Many PC software programs 
     allow users to enter years using either a four-digit or two-
     digit format that can lead some PC programs astray. Intuit 
     Inc.'s Quicken financial program, for example, lets people 
     schedule future electronic payments up to a year in advance. 
     Come late 1999, a user trying to set up a payment for ``01/
     10/00'' will get a message saying, in effect, that it's too 
     late to make a payment for 1900. To schedule the payment, 
     users will have to know enough to type ``01/10/2000'' or use 
     a special Quicken shortcut.
       The fall release of Quicken will fix the problem, says Roy 
     Rosin, the Quicken for Windows product manager at Intuit. The 
     company didn't fix it before because ``it just wasn't on the 
     radar screen.'' The new Quicken, he adds, will assume that 
     any two-digit date occurs between 1950 and 2027; a four-digit 
     year date can still specify a date outside that period. The 
     approach is a common one for Year 2000 compliant software.
       Microsfot's problem arises with Access 95, the database 
     program that was shipped last August with Windows 95. Like 
     Quicken, Access 95 doesn't properly handle two-digit dates 
     after ``99,'' says Douglas S. Dedo, who is handling most Year 
     2000 questions for Microsoft.
       Doesn't that show a lack of foresight by Microsoft 
     programmers? ``I couldn't agree with you more,'' replies Mr. 
     Dedo. He says the omission will be corrected in the next 
     version of the product, to be released next year. As with 
     Quicken, Access 95 users can work around the problem by using 
     a four-digit date.
       Microsfot's operating systems, by themselves, don't have a 
     Year 2000 problem, says Mr. Dedo, and neither do such major 
     company products as the Excel spreadsheet program.
       There is, though, an annoying problem with the basic date-
     keeping portion of a PC's hardware, called the CMOS, says Tom 
     Becker of Air System Technologies Inc. in Miami. In this 
     case, the blame belongs to International Business Machines 
     Corp. and the basic PC design it set down in the mid-1980s. 
     It turns out, Mr. Becker says, that the CMOS is something of 
     a dolt in keeping track of centuries. As a result, many PC 
     owners will need to manually reset the date to the Year 2000 
     the first time they use their machines in the 21st century.
       Mr. Dedo says that Microsoft's newer operating systems, 
     Windows 95 and Windows NT, will fix hardware date glitches 
     automatically. He adds that the company is also working on 
     fixer programs that will do the same for older DOS and 
     Windows 3.1-based machines.
       Year 2000 difficulties will probably occur mainly on the 
     IBM compatible side of the house. Apple Computer Inc.'s 
     Macintosh computer has no such problems, says an Apple 
     spokesman.
       But some recent Apple programs do, including both the Mac 
     and Windows versions of FileMaker Pro, a popular database 
     project that the Apple-owned Claris Corp. shipped until last 
     December. For forthcoming versions, says Claris's Christopher 
     Crim, the company took pains to make sure all dates were 
     converted from two to four digits before being stored. 
     ``We've learned our lesson,'' Mr. Crim says.

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