Y2K UPDATE

	September 22, 1999
	One hundred days before the new year, Paul Solman looks at the status of the Y2K computer problem in the United States.

PAUL SOLMAN: As we near January 1, a Senate panel today issued its 100-day report on the Y2K computer problem. Joining us to talk about the report are its authors: Robert Bennett, Republican of Utah, and chairman of the Senate Special Committee on the problem; and Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, and the committee's vice chairman. . PAUL SOLMAN: Gentlemen, welcome to you both. SEN. ROBERT BENNETT: Thank you. SEN. CHRISTOPHER DODD: Thank you. PAUL SOLMAN: Senator Bennett, how reassured or worried should we be at this point? SEN. ROBERT BENNETT: Well, if you're thinking in terms of the vast national systems like the power grid, the telephone system, the banking system and so on, I think you should be fairly well reassured. We are not going to have a major meltdown. On the other hand, that is no assurance that you're not going to have a problem there your backyard because there are still parts of the system, parts of the economy that could feel a Y2K impact. So I say, it's not going to roll across the country, but it may be just across your street. PAUL SOLMAN: Senator Dodd, what are you most worried about? What do you think wehaven't done yet that we need to be doing or that I should be worried about in my backyard? SEN. CHRISTOPHER DODD: Well, there's one area I think that Bob... Senator Bennett and I are probably most concerned about in terms of system-wide problems. And that is in the health care area. I think as Bob has said, telecommunications, transportation, utilities and the like are in very good shape -- federal agencies, Social Security, Medicare, the Defense Department, all in very good shape. But health care and the international scene I think are probably the two areas of most concern. In health care, there are some 800,000 physician and 50,000 doctor's offices, 16,000 nursing homes, some 6,000 hospitals in the country. And in too many cases in our urban and rural hospitals, doctor's offices, we have very little assurance and very little information that these places have become compliant. In fact, there was a story today out of Massachusetts that indicates that 51 percent of the hospitals had not finished upgrading their biomedical devices. 48 percent did not have contingency plans ready in the event of power lights to go out. So there still are areas in the health care area that are troubling. Medicaid, for one, there are too many states and too many of the systems on eligibility, management systems and children's health which are just not in good shape - yet with 100 days to go. PAUL SOLMAN: Would you personally be worried if you were in a hospital. I'm not suggesting anything, but on January 1, or I was in the hospital, any of us? SEN. CHRISTOPHER DODD: I would want to check. This is the kind of question...this is where consumers come in and they can do an awful lot, as Bob Bennett has very accurately said, if you're going to stockpile anything, stockpile information, to quote the chairman of the committee. And this is where good common sense by consumers, talking to their physician - making sure, calling their hospital and asking whether or not the equipment they have is compliant. In many places it is. I don't want to suggest that this is all across the country, but there are too many places where there are too many unanswered questions. And too many of these systems do rely on computer systems that are going to operate accurately. Unfortunately, we don't have that information. So we have to list it as an area of significant vulnerability. PAUL SOLMAN: Senator Bennett... SEN. ROBERT BENNETT: Come to Utah. Their health care is going to be just fine in Salt Lake. I've already checked it out. PAUL SOLMAN: All right. I'll be sure to make a note. But can I fly that day on my way to Utah? I read something that 47 percent or 41 percent of computer scientists weren't going to fly on January 1st. SEN. ROBERT BENNETT: My guide there is if the airline is willing to put the airplane in the sky, they know better than I do. They have a greater vulnerability with all of the liability there and their own crew with their lives at risk. If they're willing to take that risk, I'm willing to take it with them. I'd be a little careful about destinations. There are some places in the world where I wouldn't fly, but interestingly, those airlines that serve many of those places have already announced they won't have an airplane in the sky that weekend. So if you're flying to an American destination or a Western European destination, on a reliable carrier that's willing to take the risk, I think you should be willing to, too. SEN. CHRISTOPHER DODD: For our report, by the way, I think with the 670 airports in the country, licensed airport, the only area of any concern and it's relatively minor -- is the landing light area. And they're already making the correction there. So we're in very good shape on domestic flights and what Bob said internationally is accurate. PAUL SOLMAN: Senator, what about this international scene problem that Senator Dodd was referring to. In your report, you say you're worried about what happens in other countries and how it might affect us. Could you explain that. SEN. ROBERT BENNETT: Yeah. The thing that has come home to us all as we've gone through this experience is how interconnected the world is or in tech language how wired we all are. And as a result of that, if you have a problem in one part of the world that frankly you don't think about or whose name you can't even pronounce, it can turn up in the international supply chain. It can trip some kind of a trip wire in the process of providing raw materials or finished goods to something that is made some place else and then incorporated some place else. You know, the old line for want of a nail, the shoe was lost and so on can apply here. Now, that's ameliorated somewhat by the fact that the major multinational corporations are all checking their suppliers. They understand this every bit as well as Senators do, maybe better. And so they've gone two, three, four levels deep in checking their suppliers to make sure that they don't have a particular problem. But there's no question, there are some countries where they're going to have difficulties, and inevitably some of those difficulties are going to spill over into the world chain of commerce. PAUL SOLMAN: Senator Dodd, when you were here in March, both of you were here, and you were telling us the problems at that time, you worried about this interruption of supply from abroad with respect to American pharmaceuticals specifically. Still worried? SEN. CHRISTOPHER DODD: I am a bit. Again, I think there's been sort of a lackadaisical attitude in too many countries around the world about this issue. And in our view they have not taken this as seriously as they should have. I have to share a story 245 came across the wires today. Indonesia's international or national electricity board was recently asked whether or not it was Y2K prepared. The reply is really a gem. The fellow said, "we can observe what happens at midnight 1999 in Western Samoa, New Zealand, and Australia, and still have six hours to make plans." And that sort of says it all. I mean, if there... there are businesses and countries that have been working a decade to get ready. So if your attitude is you can respond in six hours, we get some indication of the kinds of problems that can ensue. PAUL SOLMAN: Back in March, Senator Bennett, you said some people will panic, and the panic will end up being more disruptive than the Y2K problem would be. Still think that? SEN. ROBERT BENNETT: Well, I'm hoping that the issuance of this report will help alleviate that, because the only real antidote to panic or complacency, and frankly we're a little worried about that too, the only antidote is good information. Senator Dodd and I have tried to make sure that this committee would become the repository of accurate information about Y2K. And we think we've gone a long way in that direction with this report. So we say to anybody who is tending to panic, look it up. Look at the report. If the report doesn't answer it, go to our Web site. Go to our hearings. All of this information is public. The administration has a Web site. And we think if people become properly informed, they will make intelligent contingency plans. And when you have a contingency plan, not one that you've cobbled together in six hours, you then don't tend to panic. You've got it under control. PAUL SOLMAN: Briefly Senator Dodd, how do you respond to someone who's listening and says, hey, what else would the government say but that we shouldn't worry about these things? Why should we believe what we're hearing? SEN. CHRISTOPHER DODD: If you listen to what Senator Bennett and I were saying a year ago and talking about the information highway here, I think both of us would have said based on what we knew a year ago, we were looking at a 50-car pileup. Today I think our assessment would be as far as our own country is concerned, maybe what we'd call the fender bender problem. It's been reduced substantially. The federal government has spent over $8 billion. Worldwide over $600 billion have been spent to deal with this issue. And we believe we've come a long way to reducing the potential threat that issue posed. But let me tell you, the one thing I think I would bring up in the closing minutes here that people can make a difference in their own lives on, there are scam artists out there who will take advantage of this situation, this Y2K problem, and call people and solicit bank information, credit card information, which they will then use to strip people of their resources, financially and otherwise. If people get unsolicited calls requesting that kind of information related to Y2K, they ought to hang up the phone or ask the people for their number and say they'll call them back. But don't share that information by anyone who calls you under the guise of Y2K. PAUL SOLMAN: Well, thank you both, gentlemen, very much. SEN. ROBERT BENNETT: Thank you. SEN. CHRISTOPHER DODD: Thank you.