Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program
Division of Energy Assistance/OCS/ACF

Required Grantee Actions Related to Preparations for Y2K

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TO: LOW INCOME HOME ENERGY ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (LIHEAP) GRANTEES AND OTHER INTERESTED PARTIES

SUBJECT: Required Grantee Actions Related to Preparations for Y2K

RELATED
REFERENCES: Low Income Home Energy Assistance Act, Title XXVI of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981, Public Law 97-35, as amended.

PURPOSE: To update grantees on ACF preparations to minimize problems arising from potential Y2K disruptions on January 1, 2000, and to request grantee assistance in those preparations

BACKGROUND: Activities and processes that depend on computers or embedded computer chips may be vulnerable to problems that arise if the computer uses two digits to indicate the year (e.g., 99 for 1999). The equipment may not be able to correctly identify "00" as 2000, and instead may read it as 1900. The consequences of such failures could be serious for LIHEAP program operations and the households who depend on energy assistance. This is known as the Y2K problem.

CONTENT: The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has worked diligently to minimize the potential for Y2K disruptions and the impact to programming should any occur. We have remediated and tested our own systems and prepared business continuity and contingency plans for each of our mission critical systems and processes.

As you know, we have also spent the summer and will spend the fall working in partnership with the States on our Y2K assessment visits. We participated in a series of Y2K workshops for our tribal grantees. We appreciate the time and effort that you have put into working with us and know that you have made Y2K a top management priority. While we are continuing to work on the assessments and technical assistance around contingency planning, we want to begin communicating with you about our plans for Day One, a term which we are using to describe the time period just prior to and after January 1, 2000.

This letter is to update you on our plans for Day One, to solicit your support to work in partnership over that period, and to request a point of contact for us to use in planning to work with you on Day One.

During Day One, ACF will be using a Day One Coordinated Response Center (CRC). The CRC will be in operation over the Day One period, including some hours over the holiday weekend. It will serve as the primary place at which ACF will collect information about the status of programs and determine any necessary response.

The CRC’s responsibilities will include:

• Responding to situations affecting the health and safety of our clients, in cooperation with other governmental agencies
• Monitoring mission critical systems during the date rollover
• Assessing our grantees’ abilities to deliver services to ACF customers
• Coordinating the Federal response to State delivery systems
• Determining the status of ACF internal operations, with attention to safety, security and functionality and providing support to national, state and local partners and customers

In addition, for LIHEAP, we will be gathering information on whether and where there may be energy supply disruptions. We will also ask what you are doing to deal with the consequences of any such disruptions, to ensure the health and safety of LIHEAP recipients.

Day One activities are designed for us to work together regarding unforeseen disruptions and the potential of localized system failures that may disrupt the delivery of ACF services. A working partnership is necessary for Day One activities to be a success in providing ACF support where necessary for a smooth Year 2000 transition.

In order for us to plan for our Day One operations and to be able to learn more about your operations during that period, we request that you provide the name of a single point of contact and a backup on your staff on Y2K issues during Day One. To assist you in providing this information, a simple form has been enclosed that can be completed and returned either by mail or fax. Please submit this information to the ACF office listed on your form by November 5, 1999.

By late November, ACF will provide you more information regarding:

• The designated contact’s role and reporting responsibilities in the Day One activities
• More details on our CRC, including contact names and numbers for Day One

We strongly recommend that you consider the potential impact Y2K may have on your organization’s systems and processes and develop a contingency plan if you haven't already done so. Contingency planning should include the identification of potential problems, their impact on mission-critical systems, and policies and procedures that may minimize any potential disruption in program operations. Further, we encourage you to take other steps that would minimize the impact of any Y2K disruptions. We recommend that you make plans to have up-to-date hard copies and back-up electronic copies of your records, that you schedule your most experienced staff to work during the period around the date rollover, and that you ask businesses and partners on whom you rely (your bank, utility companies, etc.) about their Y2K compliance to determine whether they are vulnerable to failures that could affect your operations.

In developing your contingency plans, please consider not only your own computers and office procedures, but also the impact any energy supply disruptions may have on your LIHEAP recipients. Contingency plans being developed by some grantees to deal with energy disruptions include using portable generators to set up heating centers in school gyms or community centers, obtaining the agreement of oil vendors to act as a backup in cases where one vendor's trucks or pumps won't operate, and surveying homes of tribal members to determine whether they have wood stoves and would be willing to take in others who don't.

We are enclosing for your information a copy of a letter that DHHS Secretary Donna Shalala recently sent to the governors on the Y2K issue. We are also enclosing some general information on preparing for Y2K.

To support your Y2K efforts, please feel free to discuss any concerns or problems you may have related to this issue with the LIHEAP staff. Our Day One Coordinator for LIHEAP is Linda Hill, on 202/401-9356. For technical assistance only, you may want to call the Human Services Sector Y2K Hotline at 1-888-HHS-Y2K. An associated Internet site is also available at http://y2k.acf.dhhs.gov.

______________/s_____________

Administration for Children and Families
Registration for Day One Contact(s)

State/Tribe/Territory: ____________________________________

Program(s) Represented: (please check all that apply)

__ Child Care

__Child Support Enforcement

__Child Welfare

__ LIHEAP

__TANF

Primary Contact

Name:

Business Address:

City, State, Zip:

Email:

Phone: ( )

Fax: ( )

Back Up Contact

Name:

Street Address:

City, State, Zip:

Email:

Phone: ( )

Fax: ( )

Return by: November 5, 1999

Send to:
Division of Energy Assistance
Attn: Linda Hill
370 :L’Enfant Promenade, SW
Washington, DC. 22047
or

Fax to:
( 202) 401-5661

What You Can Do to Prepare for Y2K

Prepare your household:

• Verify whether your home appliances or other equipment will have problems come January 1, 2000 at the US Consumer Gateway (http://www.consumer.gov/y2k/index.html). You can also use their checklist to complete your Y2K preparations.
  

• Use the Red Cross' checklist for some other things to consider in preparing for Y2K. The Red Cross (http://www.redcross.org) provides a number of brochures on a wide range of emergency preparation topics such as preparing disaster relief kits, food and water in an emergency, and others.
  

• Find out what to do about your money at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) (http://www.fdic.gov/about/y2k/).
  

• Read the Home Guide to Emergency Preparedness published by Montgomery County Government, Maryland (http://www.co.mo.md.us/). This guide is also available in a number of foreign languages.

• Check your State's Y2K website for more information about preparation in your State.

• Find out the latest on federal government services readiness for Y2K from the President's Council on Y2K (http://www.y2k.gov/prepare.html). The Council also lets you see the latest information on Y2K for many different government services.

• Hate to read? Then listen to some advice on Y2K from National Public Radio (you'll need RealAudio's RealPlayer to tune in):

• Check your personal computer:

• Complete a Home PC Checklist from ZDNet, a computer magazine publisher, at http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/story/story_3539.html.

• Check your computer's hardware and software vendor's statements on Y2K preparation. A list of some computer vendor Y2K sites is available at EDS' Vendor 2000 website (http://www.vendor2000.com/).

• Microsoft has two web sites of interest: the Guide for Home Computers - Y2K at http://computingcentral.msn.com/guide/year2000/msy2k/introducing/y2khome.asp or their Technet - Year 2000 at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/year2k/.

• Corel will tell you if your copy of Word Perfect will run on January 1, 2000. Their site is http://www.corel.com/year2000/index.htm.

• Read advice on your computer from FEMA (http://www.fema.gov/y2k/bltn03.htm).

Preparing at work:

Below are things to do to prepare yourself at work for Y2K.

• Find out how your agency is planning to handle Y2K-related disruptions. Read your agencies Business Continuity and Contingency Plan, if there is one.

• Make sure you know what to do if you encounter power or telephone outages, or other problems that keep you from doing your work when you come in after January 1, 2000.

• Check with your funding source and your business partners and vendors on their levels of Y2K readiness and their contingency plans.

• Verify that your work computer is OK ("Preparing at Home), above, gives suggestions on how to make sure your personal computer and software are Y2K compliant.). Don’t forget to check any personal software you’ve installed on your work computer.

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