Digital Government

OMB's McConnell to move to President's Y2K Council

Bruce McConnell, who has been instrumental in crafting and enforcing information policy at the Office of Management and Budget for more than a decade, this month will move to the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion to work on international Year 2000 issues, according to an administration so

Digital Government

OMB's McConnell to move to President's Y2K Council

Bruce McConnell, who has been instrumental in crafting and enforcing information policy at the Office of Management and Budget for more than a decade, this month will move to the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion to work on international Year 2000 issues, according to an administration source.

Digital Government

HCFA: We're ready for Year 2000

Responding to claims by Congress and the General Accounting Office, a top technology official at the Health Care Financing Administration said last week that HCFA and the contractors that process Medicare claims will have computer systems Year 2000compliant by the end of March. 'Despite what you

Digital Government

IRS taps CSC for system overhaul

The Internal Revenue Service earlier this month awarded a multibilliondollar contract to Computer Sciences Corp. to lead a 15year effort to replace the IRS' archaic computer systems. Under the Prime Systems Integration Services Contract, the CSC team will provide the program management and system

Digital Government

Coast Guard raises Y2K warning flag

SAN DIEGO Year 2000 datecode problems in oil tankers could lead to an oil spill in a U.S. port or slow the flow of imported oil to U.S. communities, some of which have 'only a three or fourday supply of oil,'' the Coast Guard's chief information officer said last week. Speaking here at the Nav

Digital Government

Y2K: 4 agencies critical

Four of the seven agencies that the Clinton administration identified this summer as critically behind in fixing key computer systems for the Year 2000 still have not made much progress and are in danger of missing the deadline for having systems fixed, according to some agency reports obtained by Federal Computer Week.

Digital Government

Y2K an early show in Labor data

The Labor Department has identified five entities in which employment security agencies are in danger of missing the Year 2000 deadline that occurs in January 1999 for their primary applications.

Digital Government

Trade system gathers international support

Members of the international trade community earlier this month threw their support behind a U.S. government plan to build a $256 million computer system for processing imports and exports. The International Trade Data System ultimately would link 350,000 businesses with 104 U.S. federal agencies t

Digital Government

IRS cuts out tax paperwork

The Internal Revenue Service plans to make it easier for tax accountants to file electronically next year by eliminating the need to follow up with signed tax forms after the fact. While the IRS sees electronic filing as a way to reduce the cost and energy of processing tax forms, the agency in pas

Digital Government

FEMA upgrades disaster-assistance system

Following the deluge of calls after Hurricane Georges ripped through Puerto Rico and across the Gulf Coast, the Federal Emergency Management Agency earlier this month upgraded a system that helps reduce the time it takes for disaster victims to apply for and receive federal financial assistance. In

Digital Government

Treasury BPAs bridge contract gap

The Treasury Department this month awarded four blanket purchase agreements potentially worth a total of about $125 million for software and major namebrand desktop computers, laser printers, notebooks and servers. ComTeq, Government Technology Services Inc. and Presidio Corp. each won BPAs worth

Digital Government

FAA catches up on Y2K fixes

The head of the Federal Aviation Administration last week told Congress that the agency has fixed nearly all of its missioncritical computer systems for the Year 2000 bug and now must begin testing.

Digital Government

Coming up short on Y2K

The first major Year 2000 milestone passed almost unnoticed last week. Sept. 30 was a target date set by the Clinton administration for agencies to have all their missioncritical systems renovated, yet it slipped quietly past many federal agencies, which are still frantically fixing their computer

Digital Government

TAXi delivers teen-friendly tax info

The Internal Revenue Service and the American Bar Association this summer unveiled a World Wide Web site to help novice taxpayers learn about the tax system and understand their financial obligations as members of the work force. The IRS describes TAXinteractive (TAXi), at www.irs.gov/taxi, as an e

Digital Government

Feds get a D for Y2K progress

With agencies making only slight improvements this summer in fixing millennium computer glitches, a House Republican overseeing the government's Year 2000 progress last week gave the Clinton administration a belowaverage grade for its efforts. Rep. Stephen Horn (RCalif.), chairman of the House Su

Digital Government

Hurricane prompts FEMA network upgrade

As Hurricane Bonnie pounded the North Carolina coast late last month, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's World Wide Web site received nearly 2.5 million hits a day almost 10 times greater than regular daily activity. When the number of daily hits temporarily caused the site to crash, FEMA

Digital Government

White House: Y2K needs $3B+

Armed with a recent report showing that costs for fixing the Year 2000 computer problem continue to increase, the Clinton administration last week sent Congress a request for $3.25 billion in emergency funding for agencies to fix their computers before the millennium. In his request for more Year 2

Digital Government

GAO concludes State's Y2K fix moving too slowly

The General Accounting Office last month warned the State Department that it is moving too slowly to fix computers for the Year 2000 bug and needs to improve its management to meet the deadline. In a report released last month, GAO encouraged State to reassess all its systems, ensure that missionc

Digital Government

IRS to test public-key tech for electronic tax filings

The Internal Revenue Service this month awarded a contract for a pilot program to take place next year that will test the technology that permits taxpayers who send their returns electronically to sign them digitally. The IRS awarded a contract to VeriSign Inc., Linthicum, Md., to conduct the pilot

Digital Government

Hamre memo raises bar for DOD Y2K

Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre last week put senior Defense Department officials on notice, assigning specific responsibility for Year 2000 testing and verification and outlining specific tasks that must be completed by Nov. 1. In a memo dated Aug. 24 and sent to the secretaries and underse