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| The Year 2000 Crisis Computer Catastrophe or High Tech Hype? April 28, 1997 |
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Questions asked
in this forum:
How is the government preparing for Y2K? Why is there no easy fix? How will Y2K affect the average computer user? Won't the computer market fix the problem? Is the Y2K really just a forced upgrade? Viewer Comments...
External Links
Morella made an opening statement at the Technology Subcommittee's hearing on March 30 dealing with the year 2000 issue.
www.year2000.com has been established as a clearinghouse of info regarding the event.
Return to @the Capitol.
General information, schedules and past Freshmen Forums.
Scrutinize the work of several major Congressional committees in online forums with the chairs and ranking members.
Follow the first year in Congress of Freshmen Reps. Kay Granger (R-TX) and Jay Johnson (D-WI)
On the stroke of midnight on January 31, 1999, as millions of people around the world ring in the new year, the world will suffer a catastrophic failure of almost anything run by computer. At least this is the scenario being discussed in government and the computer industry. (Click here for more information)
One of the ways the federal government is preparing for the Year 2000 crisis (also known as the Y2K) is in Congress. The House Science Committee's Technology Subcommittee has been holding hearings into what is being done to prepare for the Y2K. The Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Constance Morella (R-MD), is focusing on the most cost-effective way to prevent a real crisis. The crisis stems from the fact that since computers are based on a DD/MM/YY formula, computers will believe the year 2000 to be the year 1900. Therefore computers will be unable to correctly calculate any information dealing with time. The problem is solveable, the question is how to do it and how much will it cost. Rep. Morella has been looking into the problem for some time.
During the hearings, Representative Morella has been critical of the lack of preparedness. She said at the March 20, 1997 hearing, "As everyone in this room knows, we are all competing in a race against time to avert an impending computer catastrophe," Morella said. "Unless it is corrected, when we're in the year 2000, computer applications that touch our lives across the world may fail. Amazingly enough though, despite our best efforts in Congress to educate the private sector on the potential for great operational and fiscal disaster if they are still non-compliant by the year 2000, some companies have yet to address the problem. The deadline we face is unforgiving."
The work of the Technology Subcommittee is indicative of one of the important roles of the committee system. Although not highly partisan or contentious, the committee must find a way to deal with an issue that affects the way government works.
Our forum asks: How bad will the Y2K crisis be? How should the Congress address it? Why has no one planned for this event? What should be done?
Questions asked
in this forum:
How is the government preparing for Y2K? Why is there no easy fix? How will Y2K affect the average computer user? Won't the computer market fix the problem? Is the Y2K really just a forced upgrade? Viewer Comments...
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