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| WATCHING THE CLOCK | |
 December 28, 1998 
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President Clinton announced today that the Social Security Administration has fixed its Y2K problems. Following a report on the millenium bug, Jim Lehrer talks with Commissioner Kenneth Apfel about being "Y2K O.K." |
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JIM LEHRER: Today's announcement that the Social Security Administration
has fixed its Y2K problems was celebrated at the White House. President
Clinton congratulated th PRESIDENT CLINTON: The reason we're here today is to announce that on New Year's Day 2000, and on very day that follows, people like Pauline can rest easy because the millennium bug will not delay the payment of Social Security checks by a single day. The Social Security system is now 100 percent compliant with our standards and safeguards for the year 2000. To make absolutely certain, the system has been tested and validated by a panel of independent experts; the system works, it is secure. And therefore, older Americans can feel more secure.
Mr. Commissioner, welcome. KENNETH APFEL, Commissioner, Social Security Administration: Great to be here. JIM LEHRER: When did you all get onto this problem? |
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| First identified. | ||||||||||||||
| KENNETH APFEL: This problem was first identified 10 years
ago within Social Security -- to put some perspective on how long we've
been working on this activity - really heavy activity has been going on
for almost half a decade now.
JIM LEHRER: How did you get onto it?
JIM LEHRER: But back to - if you say you - and I read this today - that your administration found out about this - just started being concerned about it in 1989, when we just saw on Paul Solman's piece, Con-Ed didn't even get on to it until 1994, Bell Atlantic right about the same time. What happened at the Social Security Administration to put you so far ahead, even if other agencies of government as well? KENNETH APFEL: Well, we have a long-term responsibility for the American public. Needless to say, we have 48 million Americans who rely on that check month after month, and we need to be able to plan well in advance, so that someone would say that it's fifty-nine or sixty, coming into our offices, looking about retirement in 62 or maybe at age 65, we needed to be able to get those systems up and ready for that person years in advance. So some of our systems had to be done and ready two and three and four years ago, so - because of the kind of businesses that we're in, which is providing this wonderful service to the American public, we had to be ready well in advance for some of our activities. JIM LEHRER: So - KENNETH APFEL: And we had to start early.
KENNETH APFEL: That's right. Our systems people identified it and said, hey, we've got to spend some time here - we have to put aside other priorities and spend millions of dollars and a lot of work hours to resolve this issue, and it started many, many years ago, so that's what they did. |
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| All these lines. | ||||||||||||||
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JIM LEHRER: Now, when you say they went through all these lines, I mean, how was that done? Who did that and what were they looking for?
JIM LEHRER: And that means 35 million lines had to be checked or 35 million lines had to be changed in some way? KENNETH APFEL: Checked and changed in most cases. JIM LEHRER: And changed with new computer chips, right? KENNETH APFEL: That's right - or the new system so the identification could be made in the year 2000 that it really was 2000 and it wasn't 1900. |
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| A catastrophic view. | ||||||||||||||
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KENNETH APFEL: Well, people would have come in to say retire, and we would - our computers would have read their retirement date or their date of birth not as - the retirement date not as 2000 but as 1900, so the system would not have worked. We wouldn't have been able to calculate their future benefits; we would not have been able to calculate any of the information that was necessary to determine them to get the payments that they are legally due. JIM LEHRER: So the system would have collapsed?
JIM LEHRER: Now, is there a Social Security Administration way to do this that could be transferred say to IRS or to the Sammy Sue Bus Company or anything like that, or is it just - as you say - it's not a special system - it's just hard work, or what? KENNETH APFEL: Well, I think there are lessons for other agencies and for other organizations as to how to first establish what your systems are; two, where the lines are; three, what your connections are to other organizations, say the banking community, etcetera, that we went through, and we've been working with other federal agencies to help other agencies address this issue, but, again, each organization is unique, and it is different, so there is a need to go in and look at each one of those systems independently and determine how to act. JIM LEHRER: So you don't have a magic bullet that you gave to the president today that he can give to everybody else? KENNETH APFEL: There is no magic bullet beyond hard work and commitment throughout the agency to make this a priority for the American public. |
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| Everything will not be fixed. | ||||||||||||||
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KENNETH APFEL: Well, we conducted all of the activities that were necessary. We then had an independent consultant in to validate that it would work, and we actually tested it to make sure - let's go forward one year in the future - will the computers read correctly what is going on - and those independent validators looked at our systems and the Treasury systems that are necessary together - to work together - and the validation was made, so we are 100 percent certain that we are ready. JIM LEHRER: Now, do you have a similar problem that Bell Atlantic has, that you are tied into other systems, that other systems could in some way taint yours if they're not also fixed? KENNETH APFEL: We are in good shape. Most of our systems are independent; they're just ours. One of the areas that we're still working on is with the banking community because about ¾ of all Social Security checks are electronically transferred to accounts, so we're working heavily with the banking community and they're way ahead of this issue too. The banking community spent a lot of good time on this to make sure that those checks will be deposited appropriately a year from now. JIM LEHRER: Now based on your experience at Social Security - and you saw the piece that Paul Solman just had - where do you come down in general terms now? You're okay. Everything is fine at Social Security. How do you feel about the rest of the world on January 1st, the year 2000?
JIM LEHRER: All right. Mr. Commissioner, thank you very much. KENNETH APFEL: Great to be here. |
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e
people who did the work. 
JIM
LEHRER: And with me now is the commissioner of the Social Security Administration,
Kenneth Apfel.
KENNETH
APFEL: Well, basically, the first thing you have to do is identify the
number of software lines that you have to take a look at. We had to
look at over 35 million lines, over 300 computer systems that we have,
so it's first identifying the different computer systems that had to
be evaluated, ranking in terms of priority how to do that, try to -
if there were any interconnections with other organizations, determine
what they are and how they could affect your systems, develop contingency
plans, it's been a long-term effort, a lot of work, a lot of people
spent a lot of time on this. 
JIM
LEHRER: But in the process - but the story I read today was that somebody
in the process of getting ready not for the year 2000 problem but just
getting ready normally came across this problem, am I correct, that
somebody in one of your field offices who was putting all these things
together said, my goodness, and went through and discovered those double
digits, and went to 1900 and realized and spread the word within the
agency. Did I read the story wrong? 
KENNETH
APFEL: Well, about 700 of our programmers spent time going through once
the systems had been identified to go through each of those individual
lines and to make the changes that are necessary. This is not rocket
science; this is not incredibly hard work to do, but it is time consuming
work, because there are so many lines involved - within Social Security
I said about 35 million lines. 
JIM
LEHRER: Now, just give us - give us a catastrophic view of what would
have happened had you not been able to get a head start on this and
you had not been able to correct it. What would have happened on the
year 2000, January 1st? 
KENNETH
APFEL: It would not have worked, so that's why we spent the time that
was necessary because, as I said, 48 million Americans rely on that
Social Security check month after month after month, so we had to make
sure that they were going to be able to continue to receive it, and
they will. 
JIM
LEHRER: Now, the president said with great certainty that your - your
administration is not going to have a problem. Why are you so sure of
this? Why are you and the president so sure of this? 
KENNETH
APFEL: Well, there's a lot of work that has to be done. There's - the
president said to us sometime ago for each federal agency let's get
on with us, let's make this a priority for the American public. There's
been a lot of work throughout the federal levels, at the state and local,
government level, and now with the private sector, and different industries,
the banking industry, the electronics industry, the telecommunications
industry. We're going to have some problems out there. There's no doubt.
Everything will not be fixed by the year 2000. I think the main activities
are going to be resolved. I know that the commitments that we've made
within Social Security have made it resolved. We're seeing that now
throughout many other parts of the government and also through other
industrial sectors.