Horn Releases 10th and Final Y2K Report Cards"
 

Press Release - Congressman Stephen Horn

 In releasing the subcommittees final report card on the federal governments efforts to combat the Year 2000 problem, Rep. Stephen Horn, R-CA, said the following.

"In less than 40 days, the world will learn whether all of the efforts to prepare for the Year 2000 were successful. Congress has held 188 hearings on this important subject. Our subcommittees -- the Subcommittee on Government Management, Information, and Technology and the Science Committees Subcommittee on Technology, which comprise the House Year 2000 Task Force -- have held 43 of those hearings.

"We have come a long way since we began examining this enormous technological challenge four years ago. When we issued our first report card in July 1996, only nine of the 24 largest executive branch departments and agencies had a plan to address the problem. Today, we will present our final Year 2000 grades for these agencies, and we will discuss the readiness of the federal governments most essential programs.

"Twelve departments and agencies report that their mission-critical systems are 100 percent ready. I commend these organizations and their managers for a job well done. They are the departments of: Education and Energy, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the General Services Administration, Housing and Urban Development, departments of Interior and Labor, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Social Security Administration, and Veterans Affairs

"Four departments, Defense, Health and Human Services, Justice, and Treasury still have a few mission-critical systems to fix.

"With one exception, Federal departments and agencies have greatly improved in the "additional criteria" categories of developing and testing contingency plans, fixing and testing telecommunications systems, testing external data exchanges, identifying embedded systems, and completing verification efforts.

"The most troubling exception is the Department of Justice, which still has three mission-critical systems to fix and has not completed work in any of the "additional criteria" categories. The department does have a contingency plan. But the plan is worthless because it has not been tested.

"We are also concerned about the Internal Revenue Service because the agency is still inventorying its computers at field locations -- the first step in fixing the Y2K problem.

It is imperative that all agencies continue testing their business continuity and contingency plans.

"The executive branch has made great strides in fixing and testing mission-critical systems. However, we have serious concerns with some of the nations most essential programs, affecting millions of Americans. When we released our previous report card in September, we examined the Year 2000 readiness of 43 Federal programs, which were designated as "high impact" programs by the Office of Management and Budget.

"In September, only seven of the 43 programs were ready for the Year 2000. Now agencies report that 25 programs are ready. Although their Year 2000 compliance has tripled this quarter, 18 programs remain at risk of failure. At this late date, the simple question is: Are you ready or not? These are the programs that are not ready.

Department of Agriculture
        Child Nutrition
        Food Safety Inspection
        Food Stamps
        Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women,
        Infants, and Children (WIC)

Department of Education
        Student Aid

Health & Human Services
        Child Care
        Child Support Enforcement
        Child Welfare
        Indian Health Services
        Low-Income Home Energy Assistance
        Medicaid
        Medicare
        Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
        Public Housing

Labor
        Unemployment Insurance

Railroad Retirement Board
        Retired Rail Worker Benefits

Transportation
        Air Traffic Control System
        Maritime Safety

"Together, these programs provide the most basic needs for millions of Americans ­ education, food, shelter and medical care. However, the federal government is only one link in the long chain that delivers these public services. Many programs are not ready because its state, local and private-sector partners are not ready to implement the federal program.

"Recently, we learned that thousands of families who live in public housing are at risk of losing their heating, elevators, and fire and security systems because of the upcoming date-change. An October audit report from Housing and Urban Developments Inspector General found that local public housing authorities in eight of nine cities that were audited by the office were seriously behind in their Year 2000 remediation efforts. The audits were conducted in Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, the District of Columbia, Fort Worth, New Orleans, New York, and Omaha.

"Other than New York City, local housing authorities had no plan to warn tenants of the potential risk to their health and safety. Tenants must be quickly informed of this potential risk, so they can begin preparing for it. Everyone, in fact, should take reasonable measures to ensure their health and safety over the next few months.

"The Year 2000 problem is not limited to January 1, 2000, but may randomly occur over the next few months. Computer experts are especially concerned that Year 2000 problems may arise because of the extra day in leap year -- February 29, 2000. And we have learned from the Federal Bureau of Investigation that there may be an intensified effort by hackers to invade computers and spread harmful computer viruses during the critical days before and after January 1. It is incumbent that everyone be aware of this possibility, and take extra precautions to guard their computer systems."

-- Public Housing in Trouble (US@40.days), November 27, 1999

Answers

Thanks for putting this up for us.

Included in this list is Air Traffic Control. Where the *bleep* is Jane Garvey with her retractions for every *bleeping* statement of compliance she has made since Jan 1999? How the *bleep* can the FAA be compliant if ATC is not? Do they think we are *bleeping* idiots?

Planes will not fall from the sky. They will never leave the ground.

Add that to the other gems in this late November report, and it is clear that this is going to be one *bleep* of a bump in the road.

-- semper paratus (hang_on_to@your.hat), November 27, 1999.

After reading this report, I noticed that the gov. got a B+....If my kid comes home with a B+ on his report card, I'd be thrilled.....Why am I not thrilled by this report? Is this graded on a sliding scale of some sort?

-- P.A. (adkins@webbernet.net), November 27, 1999.

P.A.:

If your mechanic gave your car a B+, would you load up your family in it and head out for a road trip?

-- semper paratus (I@think.not), November 27, 1999.

When the Subcommittee first began releasing these report cards, there was an accompanying table explaining what the grades meant. If memory serves, an "A" meant that the entity/agency was expected to have their mission criticals compliant by 12/31/1999. A "B" meant they were expected to be compliant sometime in the year 2000. At some point, the Subcommittee was no longer including the definition of the grades in their public releases.

-- (RUOK@yesiam.com), November 27, 1999.

Response to "thousands of families who live in public housing are at risk of losing their heating" REP HORN Report Card

Well, remember the Bell Curve, folks. Remember how we always rejoiced in high school when we asked a teacher how he graded and he said he "graded on the curve?" Unless one of the really smart kids was in the class, I knew I would do ok.

Let me suggest that uncle fudd is grading on the curve, and the smart kids have gone south for the rollover.

gene

-- gene (ekbaker@essex1.com), November 27, 1999.

Response to "thousands of families who live in public housing are at risk of losing their heating" REP HORN Report Card

Ok, Seriously. Could someone explain to me how a grade of C can be given fro being 99% compliant? Seems to me a 99% should be an A.

But then again this isn't school and that 1%, in some cases, could mean the difference between life and death and therefore the grade should be an F at this point.

DoD = C+ Treasury = C

Oh hell, this stuff is so bogus at this point why analyze it.

-- the Virginian (1@1.com), November 27, 1999.