The Trump administration announced Thursday the federal government will finally stop prepping for the Y2K bug -- 17 years after the fact.
The Y2K bug was a concern leading up to the year 2000. At that time, computers were only storing the last two numbers when referencing dates by year, which led to issues at the turn of the millennium. IT gurus worried that when 1999 rolled over to 2000, vital infrastructure and communications would all shut down. Panic ensured when a few screens begun to display the wrong numbers once the year changed to 2000.
The United States poured millions of dollars into trying to prevent a wide scale tech problem. But the panic ended up being for nothing as most computers made the switch without so much as a hiccup. Most companies and business were able to update their systems to accommodate the new millennium, leading some to suspect the whole thing was a hoax.
But up until Thursday, there was still a federal requirement on the books requiring constant updates on this irrelevant bug.
This Y2K reporting mandate was one of more than 50 paperwork-based requirements the Office of Management and Budget have eliminated in a memorandum sent out to the heads of executive departments and agencies this week, a move that Bloomberg reports will save tens of thousands of hours of work across multiple agencies.
Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told reporters at the White House that this is the beginning of the new administration cleaning house.
“We’re looking for stuff that everyone agrees is a complete waste of time,” he explained.
It looks like in Washington, there's more than one swamp that needs draining.