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Congressman Stephen Horn has referred to a breakdown in 2000 as a potential electronic nightmare. Over half of Federal agencies won't make it, he says.
This appeared in THE GUARDIAN (Jen. 15).
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MORE than half the US government’s major agencies will fail to fix their computer systems in time for the year 2000 date change with potentially disastrous consequences, according to a congressional report.
Congressman Stephen Horn, who chairs the House Government Management, Information and Technology sub-committee, issued the dire warning last month based on a report from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the federal agency monitoring the US government’s progress in getting its computers ready for 2000.
“Unless agencies make much faster progress soon, the federal government runs a serious risk of a massive electronic breakdown on January 1, 2000. If federal computers fail, the distribution of benefit cheques could be disrupted, the air traffic control system could become deadlocked and computerised records could be lost or damaged. At best, we face a major headache; at worst, an electronic nightmare,” says Horn.
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