I am interested in reading the full report. Does anyone know where I can find it on the internet? I checked the government Y2K site, and I also checked Bob Bennett's site and I could not find the report.

Thanks

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-- Anonymous, February 26, 1999

Answers

Andrew, are you referring to the recent Senate Special Committee on Y2K report? If I remember correctly, this is said to be a 160 plus page report, and I don't believe it's been released in full yet, but should be soon. A draft of the report was acquired by reporters. This is from the CBN site which references the Washington Post story:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/daily/feb99/y2k24.htm

(Washington Post)

This will be a Page One story in The Washington Post Wednesday:

"A report on the Year 2000 computer problem prepared by a special Senate panel warns that a number of foreign countries and U.S. economic sectors, especially the health care industry, appear at significant risk for technological failures and business disruptions."

"The report, scheduled for release this week by Sens. Robert F. Bennett (R-Utah) and Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), includes a letter to Senate colleagues describing the problem of computers' ability to recognize dates starting on Jan. 1, 2000, popularly known as Y2K, as a "worldwide crisis" and as "one of the most serious and potentially devastating events this nation has ever encountered."

"A draft copy of the Senate report, provided by staff aides to The Washington Post, describes in vivid detail the scope of the potential Y2K problem and the frustrations that Senate investigators encountered as they tried to gather information from industries reluctant to describe what progress they have made in fixing computer and telecommunication systems."

I believe that when the full report is released, you will be able to access it from the Senate Special Y2K Committee site at:

http://www.senate.gov/~y2k/

(The report will likely be in a downloadable .pdf format which requires an Adobe Acrobat reader to access it, but I can't be positive about the format they'll choose to use.)

-- Anonymous, February 26, 1999

This is a link:

http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/18179.html

There is no need for people to buy electricity generators or stockpile propane, according to Bennett, who said a prolonged nationwide blackout was unlikely.

Most power grids will be fine, Bennett said, "At worst, we're going to have some brownouts" in rural areas. and... Both senators said there was no way to tell how serious the disruptions would be.

"When we get to New Year's Eve, everybody, no matter how informed we think we are, is going to be holding his breath," Bennett said.

-- Anonymous, March 01, 1999

Well, that certainly helps to clear things up...

-- Anonymous, March 01, 1999

LindaO, I love your short comment!

Isn't it just wonderful when someone like Senator Bennett proclaims in one breath that, "at worst..." and in the next that, "there was no way to tell how serious the disruptions would be.."?

If there's no way to tell, then he can't possibly say what a "worst" scenario will or won't be. Noticed he even waffled about " a prolonged nationwide blackout was unlikely." The word "unlikely" doesn't preclude the possibility of it happening, but then there's no way to tell according to Bennett and Dodd, is there? Such firm leadership we have! Don't worry, people, you don't need to buy generators, etc. even though there's no way to tell how serious disruptions will be. We're supposed to just bet on the best case scenario?

Sorry, I'll prepare for the worst case scenario that is within my ability to do. That's what I see as the logical way to handle a "no way to tell" statement. I also can't help but think that if our political leadership had had any real understanding of the interdependence of computer systems, they would have acted forcefully in 1989 when the Social Security agency encountered Year 2000 problems. Every time I hear or read another "we're on top of things" statement, I harken back to "Tom's Take" that Rick posted a while back. If everyone was "on top of things" we wouldn't even be talking about Y2K, the problems would have been fixed years ago. My patience with "trust us" statements has gotten tissue thin. Enough of the rant; time for me to go calm down and have a cup of tea.

-- Anonymous, March 01, 1999

Drew Parkhill (CBN) promises to post at least parts of the report on the Timebomb discussion group also found through the www.greenspun.com bulletin boards.

Someone in that forum also mentioned that tomorrow would be Y2K day in the Senate, whatever that means. . . Stay tuned!

-- Anonymous, March 01, 1999

The report is up at http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/03/02/y2k.report

One of the first things that struck me was in the Executive Summary, under the utilities section. They say that according to NERC, only about 50% of utilities are done remediation.

Now of course, we know that is completely wrong. I'd be thrilled if 50% of utilities were done remediation. But, utilities as a whole are, on average, 50% done remediation. Huge difference, and I can't believe they (the Senate committee) don't know the difference.

Jon

-- Anonymous, March 02, 1999