Federal Programs at Risk of Failure

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Following is a listing of 11 of the 18 "High Impact Programs" not ready and determined to be at a High Risk of Failure according to Congressman Stephen Horn's Committee's final report card of the century on Federal Departments and Agencies. The overall grade was a B+. Very good, but possibly not good enough if you require the following programs.

Our task at hand is simple: Make sure that the potentially millions of recipients of these programs (mostly children and our elderly) are aware of what they must do should any of these programs fail! Please help us to inform them by doing the following:

If you live in, or know anyone who lives in the mentioned States, we need your help to look in the phone book, make a call and locate the Director of the State's Welfare Department or the Director of that State's listed program-at-risk. An email address would be ideal! Please forward that Name and email information to: cliff@genesisspecialty.com or info@m2ktalk.com, or ane@skybest.com. We will do the rest.

These agencies have done a tremendous job in getting ready and it's unfortunate to be concerned of the possibilities in the areas that still need some work. Let us not dwell on the problem, but rather, implement a solution. We don't need any Mom's or Dad's showing up to collect Food Stamps, finding a closed office and having to do whatever needs to be done to feed the kids. These folks need a contingency plan. We would assume these State-Level agencies have a plan and it is time to let the people depending on these programs understand the possibilities and thier options.

CHILD Nutritional: 6 States NOT Ready: Alabama, Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, New Mexico, Oregon.

FOOD SAFETY INSPECTION: No states were listed in the report, just the program. What does this mean? We are still trying to find out and will post upon confirmation.

FOOD STAMPS: 10 States NOT Ready: Alabama, Arkansas, District of Columbia, Georgia, Guam, Illinois, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, Virgin Islands.

WOMEN, INFANTS AND CHILDREN (WIC): 6 States NOT Ready: Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, Oklahoma, West Virginia.

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE: 3 States NOT Ready: Connecticut, District of Columbia, Montana.

CHILD CARE: 3 States at High Risk: Kentucky, New Jersey, West Virginia.

CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT: 3 States at High Risk: District of Columbia, New Jersey, Virgin Islands.

CHILD WELFARE: NO states at HIGH RISK , but 14 States at MEDIUM RISK: Alabama, Colorado, District of Columbia, Georgia, Guam, Louisiana, New Jersey, Virgin Islands.

LOW INCOME HOME ENERGY ASSISTANCE: 1 State at HIGH Risk: New Jersey.

TEMPORARY ASSISTANCE FOR NEEDY FAMILIES: 3 States at HIGH RISK: District of Columbia, New Jersey, Virgin Islands.

MEDICAID: 5 States at HIGH RISK: Alabama, Alaska, New Hampshire, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands.

Additional program information in process for the following:

Department of Education: Student Aid
Health and Human Services: Indian Health Services
Medicare
Public Housing
Railroad Retirement Board: Retired Rail Worker Benefits
Department of Transportation: Air Traffic Control System
Maritime Safety

These are the programs that were reported as not ready and/or are at Risk of Failure. This information was obtained from the Office of Representative Stephen Horn ( www.house.gov/horn) and is deemed accurate and reliable. As we get additional information, we will do our best to post promptly. Please help us to help others, as mentioned above.

PS: All major wire services should have this information. Both AP and the Washington Post 'reported' the final report from Congressman Horn. Neither included the details of the programs at risk, by state. Guess they didn't want people to panic. Neither do we. We just want people to be informed and prepared so they don't have to panic later. Especially our nation's children and elderly.

to be continued......

-- Ryker (ryker@soybean.chat), December 09, 1999

Answers

I live in Alabama, the least prepared of all the states. I have relatives in their late 60s that recently retired from the state government. They are dependent on state for retirement income and medical expenses. I saw them last week and told them (for the third or fourth time) that they better do something to prepare for y2k. They looked at me like I was crazy and said, "They've already fixed all of the problems; y2k is nothing to worry about". I imagine that their sons and daughters, who are teachers and thus also dependent on the state, feel the same way. They have this attitude in spite of the fact that the local paper's headline about two weeks ago was something like "State Agencies Not Prepared for y2k".

I'm through telling people to prepare; it's too mentally exhausting to do otherwise. I figure that I've done my duty if I tell people that they should have an open mind and do a little research on y2k.

Hopefully nothing will happen and y2k will fizzle into nothing. But if it doesn't, I'll have no remorse about not doing more. I can't save the world.

-- impala (impala@wild.com), December 09, 1999.


The Food Safety Inspection Program is going to be shut down at year end, for ? period of time. Medicare/medicaid is toast. In order for it to work, the feds (in several locations) have to be able to communicate (via software) with all doctors, pharmacies, hospitals, state agencies, etc. Almost no testing of this has been done. It will be a long time before they get the bugs worked out of this. Also, IRS may go down the tubes. HaHa.

-- checkit (checkit@timeout.com), December 09, 1999.

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