> >03:38 PM ET 06/19/98 > >Republicans offer plan to pay for millennium fix > > > By Patrick Connole > WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House Republican leaders Friday >agreed on a plan to pay nearly $4 billion to repair government >computers before the year 2000 millennium bug strikes. > In a victory for fiscal conservatives, the leaders agreed to > >cut other government programs to pay for the costly computer fix >rather than tack the money onto next year's budget. > ``We solved the problem,'' said Rep. Mark Neumann, the >Wisconsin Republican who fought this week to hold government >spending within the limits set in last year's historic 5-year >balanced budget deal. > The plan would remove emergency spending provisions from >this year's defense and treasury spending bills, and offer the >entire $3.85 billion package to the House as a separate, >emergency spending bill. > By creating the emergency appropriations, the computer bug >fix can be paid for by cutting money from the fiscal 1999 >domestic and defense programs rather than use part of the >anticipated budget surplus. > Neumann said if the procedure was not changed, the ``barn >door'' would have opened for an onslaught of emergency spending >plans over and above the budget caps. > ``The debate is not about the computers, but whether we >should classify this as emergency spending and break caps and >spend the surplus,'' Neumann said. > House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who convened the leadership >meeting, would not comment on the agreement, saying he must >confer first with Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. > The millennium bug, also known as the Year 2000 problem, can > >cripple information systems as old software programs do not read >the entire four digits in a year, only the last two. > At the onset of the Year 2000, these systems mistake the >double ``00'' in the year as standing for ``1900'' and crash, >corrupt or lose data. > Potential computer software failures have jolted the >appropriations process as lawmakers wrestle with finding money >to pay for fixing the problem. > Congress has grown increasingly worried that U.S. defenses >would be jeopardized if computer systems failed, leaving troops >and weapons systems vulnerable to the breakdown. Non-defense >government computers would also be impacted, disrupting >day-to-day activities ranging from the Federal Aviation >Administration air traffic control operations to computerized >mailings of monthly Social Security checks. > > ^REUTERS@ > =============================== Kathy E. Gill, Guide - http://agriculture.miningco.com/ WWW design � writing � training - http://www.dotparagon.com/ Mac Advocacy - http://www.halcyon.com/kegill/mac/ "A different world cannot be built by indifferent people." ____________________________________________________________________ -------------------------------------------------------------------- Join The Web Consultants Association : Register on our web site Now Web Consultants Web Site : http://just4u.com/webconsultants If you lose the instructions All subscription/unsubscribing can be done directly from our website for all our lists. ---------------------------------------------------------------------
