Rep. pushes for National Y2K Test Day

Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.) last week introduced a bill that would require federal agencies to conduct a widescale, end-to-end test of key computer systems to determine if they are prepared to handle the Year 2000 computer date change.

The bill would also encourage state and local governments, as well as businesses, to participate in the test.

Ford, who sits on the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, hopes that agencies and industries that use computer systems to manage health care, safety, payments, service delivery and national defense will participate in the coordinated test on July 1—to be dubbed "National Y2K Test Day."

"The federal government has made progress in ensuring that most of its mission-critical systems are Y2K-compliant," Ford said in a prepared statement released today. "But it's important that federal agencies move quickly to conduct end-to-end testing to determine their ability to deliver services that are important to the American people."

Ford's bill also would require federal agencies to provide advance notice of Year 2000-related problems that may occur with their computer systems or with computer systems to which they are connected.

The bill also would set aside Aug. 16 as a "National Y2K Disclosure Day," in which federal agencies would be required to reveal the readiness of their mission-critical computer systems.