Bush seeks nearly $60 billion in new IT spending

President Bush will ask Congress for $59 billion in new information technology spending when he submits his 2004 budget next month. The request is $6 billion more than last year's proposal and reflects the government's increased investments in technology to support homeland security and the war on terrorism, an administration official said this week.

The fiscal 2004 budget also focuses on computer security, automation and development of enterprise architectures. The bulk of IT spending-$37 billion-would be devoted to projects directly related to agency missions. The budget would also provide more than $4.7 billion in new funding for computer security.

Mark Forman, the associate director of IT at the Office of Management and Budget, detailed the president's budget request during a speech Monday at a conference in San Diego sponsored by Oracle, one of the largest IT contractors in the federal market. Forman said some agencies are buying the same technology products rather than sharing resources. He also said few agencies had developed enterprise architectures. Forman noted these problems were endemic to agencies when he took office two years ago.

Forman noted that more than $21 billion has been budgeted for more than 750 federal IT projects on an OMB "at risk list." To get off that list, an agency must prove to OMB that its projects are not only worth funding, but that they meet administration standards in such areas as security.

Forman, the president's point man on electronic government, announced no new technology policy initiatives, and repeated his frequent call upon agencies to make more of their services available online to citizens and business. While he placed great emphasis in his speech on the potential of e-government at civilian agencies, technology analysts agree that homeland security and defense IT spending will siphon money away from those projects.

Meanwhile, Congress still hasn't passed the full fiscal 2003 budget, and technology projects across government are in a holding pattern. Upgrades to antiquated systems in many Homeland Security agencies, including the Customs Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Coast Guard, are all being held to the previous year's spending levels, which means little to no new work can begin. That's problematic for the new department's managers as they try to organize nearly two dozen agencies, as well as their IT systems, to coordinate the global war on terrorism.

Also, the government hasn't delivered $3.5 billion in grants to state and local governments to equip emergency responders with new technological equipment and training. Several governors and a range of city officials have complained that Washington expects them to pay for homeland security at a time when many of their budgets are running enormous deficits.