Federal agencies could have to stop paying for Y2K contracts they "could legally stop," and give the money back to Congress under a controversial emergency appropriations bill, the Clinton administration's Y2K czar said Wednesday.
The Senate bill, S. 544, would divert emergency Y2K funding to a bill that would appropriate $2.4 billion for Central American hurricane victims, among other things. The proposal asks for $973 million back from the Y2K fund, although there is only $500 million left unspent.
White House Y2K czar John Koskinen told National Journal's Technology Daily that if the funds were taken back, it would be "inconsistent with how Congress has acted so far."
The House version, H.R. 1141, would provide $1.3 billion in emergency funding, but would not dip into the emergency Y2K funds that were appropriated last year.
Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, who chairs the Senate Y2K committee, called the Senate plan "shortsighted," and said he's talking with Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, to fix the situation.
"I cannot think of anything more distressing than to have the federal government not be compliant and the reason be that we ran out of money," Bennett said Wednesday at a hearing on federal Y2K readiness.
Congress last year approved a total of $3.25 billion for federal Y2K repair efforts, with $1.1 billion dedicated to Y2K repairs for the Defense Department. Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, successfully added the provision to S. 544 as an amendment that called for using unspent emergency funds from last year to offset costs for this year's emergency spending bill.
At hearings earlier this year, Stevens assured Koskinen that money should not be an obstacle to the federal government as it prepares for the 2000 date change. This pledge could come into play when House and Senate lawmakers meet to hammer out a compromise emergency spending plan.
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