Budget includes modest boost for IT programs

President Bush's proposed fiscal 2007 budget would allow moderate growth for some civilian information technology programs.

Contained within the administration's $2.77 trillion budget is approximately $64.3 billion in proposed spending on IT. Slightly more than half that amount -- $33.7 billion -- is slated for civilian IT, with the remainder committed to the Defense Department. That amount does not include money drawn through supplemental appropriations, however.

The request for $64.3 billion in 2007 represents a 3 percent increase over the amount Congress appropriated for technology programs in fiscal 2006, according to the Office of Management and Budget. But it is lower than the $65 billion the White House sought for IT this time last year.

In comparison to the 2006 funding levels enacted by Congress, Bush is proposing a 5 percent increase for civilian IT spending, and a less than 1 percent increase for Defense IT programs.

Because OMB projects that inflation in fiscal year 2006 will amount to 3.3 percent, the low increase for the Pentagon in effect works as a budget cut. But, including supplemental appropriations dollars, the Pentagon is in fact seeing an overall rise in its proposed IT dollars, said Alan Balutis, president of Input Government Strategies, a Reston, Va.-based market analysis firm.

"That's been the way the administration has been able to fund a number of DoD initiatives," Balutis said.

Individual civilian departments slated for cuts due to budget increases less than the rate of inflation include the Enviromental Protection Agency and the departments of Energy, Justice, Transportation. Agencies slated for outright cuts even when inflation is not factored in include NASA, which is targeted for a 5.5 percent decrease.

A clear winner in the budget battles is the Homeland Security Department, set for a $772 million increase, the largest absolute IT gain of any agency. That increase amounts to a boost of 21 percent compared with actual fiscal 2006 appropriations. Judged against the amount Bush had originally requested for DHS during fiscal 2006, however, it is an increase of only 2 percent.

It remains to be seen whether Congress will go along with the proposed increases in IT funding. Last year lawmakers did not, keeping IT spending approximately equal to its fiscal 2005 level by increasing appropriations less than 1 percent, despite the administration's request to bump up funding by 7 percent

IT is "not usually the kind of thing that gets constituents hot and bothered," said Stan Collender, a veteran budget observer and weekly columnist on the subject for National Journal. Technology requests are easy targets for lawmakers who would prefer to spend money on "a dam, a post office, a tunnel -- something they can see or feel," Collender said. As a result, IT contractors and federal agencies should view the president's request as very unlikely to become enacted as presented, he said.

In unveiling the budget, OMB touted what it says is evidence of better management of IT programs governmentwide. The number of major IT projects on a watch list for underperformance in metrics, earned value management, or cybersecurity fell to 263, from 342 this time last year.

Moreover, the collective value of major IT projects will decrease by 10 percent from fiscal 2006 to fiscal 2007, according to OMB figures. The number of major IT projects has consistently declined since fiscal 2005. When compared with fiscal 2005, however, the projected fiscal 2007 value of major IT projects - $37 billion - has actually gone up by $6.7 billion. As a result, there are now fewer major IT projects, but the average value per major project has increased during the past two fiscal years.

The fiscal 2007 budget request carries a proposal for $5 million in direct appropriations for e-government initiatives. The administration also is asking for permanent permission to use up to $40 million for e-government from fees generated by the General Services Administration. President Bush made the same request for fiscal 2006, but Congress appropriated only $3 million and rejected the idea of using any GSA fee money for e-government.