The estimate of the amount of money the federal government will spend to fix the year 2000 computer problem is up to $6.4 billion, the Office of Management and Budget reported Tuesday.
The estimate rose $1 billion since August, when OMB predicted agencies would spend $5.4 billion from fiscal 1996 through fiscal 2000 eliminating the millennium bug from computer systems.
"This increase is not unexpected, and the President's fiscal year 1999 budget included an allowance to address emerging requirements," OMB said in its seventh quarterly report on federal Y2K efforts. The omnibus 1999 spending bill President Clinton signed in October gives the Defense Department $1.1 billion in emergency Y2K funding this year and non-Defense agencies $2.25 billion.
OMB also reported that 61 percent of the government's 6,696 mission-critical computer systems are now Y2K compliant, up from 50 percent in August. Of the remaining computer systems, 30 percent are still being repaired, seven percent are being replaced and three percent will be retired. OMB has set March 1999 as the deadline for agencies to complete Y2K work.
OMB said six agencies are not making adequate progress: Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, State, Transportation and the Agency for International Development. The Education Department, which was on OMB's list in August, is now making better progress, OMB said.
Progress among agencies varies greatly. The Social Security Administration has fixed 99 percent of its computer systems, OMB reported. AID, on the other hand, has repaired only 14 percent of its systems.
Two weeks ago, Rep. Steve Horn, R-Calif., criticized the executive branch's Y2K efforts, issuing the government a "D" grade in his quarterly Y2K report card.
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