Here's an issue you might want to contact your members of Congress about:

http://www.fcw.com/pubs/fcw/1999/0419/web-y2kbill-4-21-99.html

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APRIL 21, 1999 . . . 17:36 EDT

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Clinton administration: Governmentwide Y2K testing day unnecessary

BY ORLANDO De BRUCE (orlando_debruce@fcw.com)

Rep. pushes for National Y2K Test Day (FCW 4/19/99)

FCW's Y2K coverage

The White House today announced that it does not support a bill that would require federal agencies to set aside one day to conduct governmentwide testing of key computer systems to assess their Year 2000-compliance.

Last week, Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.) introduced a bill that would designate July 1 as a "National Y2K Test Day," in which federal agencies would be required to conduct end-to-end testing of their mission-critical computer systems.

But such a step is unnecessary because the Clinton administration already requires agencies to test their systems fully, said John Koskinen, chairman of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion. Asking agencies to carry out the tests in one day only creates undue burdens, Koskinen said.

"That is a duplicating requirement," he said at a press conference at the White House. "The problem with national test day is that it is very difficult to do. It's almost impossible. Making everybody have another test day is a waste of time."

Though Ford has good intentions, he said, he is "not sure the bill will progress."

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-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), April 22, 1999

Answers

I thought the point was to get testing done IN CONJUNCTION with other systems rather in stand-alone mode, which is, of course, necessary. That way, all the interconnectivity issues might come up now, while there might be time to find those problems and fix them.

We as a country (including state/local/corporate) can't afford to fix all the Y2K problems or to properly provide contingency planning for emergency help country wide. But we can spend 6 billion -- or according to the pentagon, a predicted 100 billion -- and thousands of our soldier's lives on some other country, and further send our National Guard reserves, who could be home helping us in an emergency, as far away as possible.

Yes, yes, this all makes perfect sense.

PJ in TX

-- PJ Gaenir (fire@firedocs.com), April 22, 1999.

Previously discussed in:

FEDs Propose Y2K Test Day at http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000k4S

-- No Spam Please (No_Spam_Please@anon_ymous.com), April 22, 1999.