Government Computers Aren’t Ready for 2000, Lawmaker Says
The federal government faces a significant risk of critical computer breakdowns because some Cabinet departments are having trouble speeding up the pace of their repair work on the year 2000 glitch, according to internal documents obtained Tuesday.
The Treasury Department, for instance, has not fully determined whether a system that processes government-wide financial data will work because of scheduling delays involving a private-sector contractor. The Department of Health and Human Services faces a shortage of skilled programmers to work on Medicare computers. And the Defense Department has encountered technical risks that are thwarting quick repairs to the software that plans Tomahawk missile missions.
Between Feb. 15 and May 15, the government finished fixing only 5% of its “mission critical” systems, according to recent department reports submitted to the Office of Management and Budget and obtained by the Washington Post.
As of May 15, more than 60% of the critical computer systems still had not been fully repaired.
The government’s pace of repair work has alarmed many computer industry analysts and has come under attack by Republicans on Capitol Hill. Rep. Stephen Horn (R-Long Beach), the chairman of a House subcommittee that has been examining the Clinton administration’s year 2000 efforts, asserted Tuesday that the current rate of repairs means that more than 40% of the critical systems will not be fixed by the March 1999 deadline set by the White House.
“We need to prioritize and recognize this as a major emergency,” said Horn, who cited the “disturbing slowdown of the government’s rate of progress” in issuing a report card Tuesday that flunked the administration on its date-conversion work.
The year 2000 problem stems from the use in many computer systems of a two-digit dating system that assumes that 1 and 9 are the first two digits of the year. Without specialized reprogramming, the systems will recognize “00” not as 2000 but 1900, a glitch that could cause the computers either to shut down or malfunction.
