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US Federal Government Year 2000 Survey

Statement of the Honorable Stephen Horn
Chairman
Subcommittee on Government Management,
Information and Technology

July 30, 1996

As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology, I am releasing the results of a survey sent to 24 major departments and agencies. The survey, which was sent on April 29, 1996, requested that agencies provide the subcommittee with a status report of when and at what expense agencies plan to address the problem of computer software which currently is unable to recognize the year 2000.

The Federal government's computer systems rely on accurate date fields to calculate age, transfer money, and determine maintenance schedules for national security systems. Without converting these fields to interpret the turn of the century, government systems could potentially eliminate the transferof money, erase database systems needed to send checks to eligible benefit recipients, and adversely impact critical missions, such as those conducted by the Department of Defense.

On April 16, 1996, the subcommittee held a hearing to determine the extent of this computer problem. The hearing revealed that there is a serious lack of awareness of the problem on the part of a great number of people in business and in government. Even more alarming was the cost estimate reported to the subcommittee to remedy this problem which was said to be $30 billion for the Federal government alone. In response to these findings I, along with Congresswoman Maloney, developed a number of questions to better understand what Federal agencies are doing to prevent a possible disaster. Are they taking the necessary steps to identify the problem? Are they providing the necessary human and capital resources to correct the problem? Have they developed plans to achieve a successful launching of their systems into the 21st century?

The responses received from Federal agencies , in most cases, provided us with limited information, on when and at what cost agencies plan to correct this potentially disastrous computer software conversion problem.

Even with this information, an outline forms, which portrays a Federal government unable to meet the challenges of the 21st century because of a lack of awareness and preparedness. Some of our major findings include:

Major departments are in the initial planning stages of this effort, even though, agencies need to have their systems inventoried and fixed by 1998, in order to provide sufficient time to test and ensure total accuracy. this means, in the next year and a half these departments must complete their plans, inventory and fix million of lines of code, while simultaneously meeting agency needs.

Even those agencies considered leaders on this issue, such as the Social Security Administration, and the Department of Defense are not close to completing the inventory and solution stages of conversion.

According to the information received, only six agencies have cost estimates on the monetary resources need to solve the problem. In fact the Department of Health and Human Services, has cost estimates for only two divisions, amounting to $125 million. The Department of Agriculture has cost estimates for only one division, amounting to $5.6 million. The total estimate for these six agencies and their departments is $298 million.

The Department of Defense has not yet completed its inventory of computer software code which needs to be converted. The cost estimate to fix the 358 million estimated lines of code to be reviewed could cost between $1.02 and $8.52 per line. This means the cost to review and fix DoD systems could range somewhere between $358 million and $3 billion.

NASA, one of the most innovative, advanced and computer dependent agencies in the Federal government, has not prepared a plan to solve the problem and does not anticipate having a plan completed until March 1997 -- this leaves less than a year to inventory, and fix systems.

The Department of Transportation, which includes the Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Railroad Administration did not respond to the questions as of this date. The Department of Energy did not begin to address the year 2000 issue until a week after it received the subcommittee's survey.