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Senate report: Many sectors of economy still at risk from Y2K
February 28, 1999 WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, February 28) -- A Senate committee report to be released Tuesday concludes that many sectors of the U.S. economy -- including public utilities, health care and telecommunications -- are still at risk from the Year 2000 computer bug. But the co-chairs of the Senate special committee on the so-called Y2K bug said Sunday that while more work needs to be done, there is no cause for panic.
"We will probably not have a meltdown. This will not be the end of the world as we know it," said Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah) on CBS's "Face The Nation." "If we get everybody to continue (to work on Y2K), we will probably get the thing under control." Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Connecticut) said the social chaos predicted by some doomsayers is highly unlikely, at least in the United States. But he said people might want to take some precautions. "What you ought to do is prepare for a good storm, a hurricane, a storm where you'd like two or three days of ... water and canned goods and the like," Dodd said, also on "Face The Nation." Bennett also said that while more needs to be done to eradicate Y2K problems, no one will really know the seriousness of the problem until January 1, 2000, actually arrives. "Ultimately, when we get to New Year's Eve, everybody, no matter how informed we think we are, is going to be holding his breath," he said The Senate committee's report concludes that "all sectors of the economy, many of which provide goods and services that are vital to our health and well-being, are at risk, including public utilities, health care, telecommunications, transportation, banking and finance, commerce and small business and national security."
The report points to possible problems in the food supply system because of computer breakdowns. Another area of unease is that 90 percent of the nation's 800,000 doctors' offices have not upgraded their computers, meaning that doctors could temporarily lose access to medical records or that dialysis or heart monitoring equipment could stop working. Affluent hospitals will be in good shape, Dodd said, but "we are very, very worried about what happens in the rural or urban situations."
'Some brownouts' at worstBennett said most power grids will be fine, and "at worst we're going to have some brownouts" in rural areas. He said he would be willing to fly on January 1, 2000 -- on a domestic, not overseas, flight -- but he had heard that some insurance companies are refusing to insure flights without assurances that the computers were going to work. "That becomes chicken and egg: No insurance, they don't fly; they don't fly, they can't prove," Bennett said. "We'll watch that one carefully." The report from the Bennett-Dodd committee and CIA testimony to Congress last week pinpointed poorer countries in general -- and Russia in particular -- as areas ill-prepared for the millennium bug. Bennett said an accidental nuclear launch is "very, very unlikely." A more likely scenario would be that "if somebody were to press the button to cause an intercontinental missile to go off, it wouldn't work." Bennett's committee sent a team to Russia to evaluate its preparations. He said they returned with the conclusion: "Yes, they are going to have real problems, and no one is going to notice because they said nothing works over there right now." The Senate report details possible problems with Russia's early warning system for incoming missiles. Dodd and Bennett back a plan where experts from Russia, the United States, and possibly India and Pakistan, gather in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on January 1, 2000, to ensure that no country is in the dark about other countries' intentions in the event of a computer failure. The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
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