Homeland Security gets half of IT boost in Bush budget
Administration’s fiscal 2007 request would increase technology funding for DHS by 21 percent.
The modest information technology spending increase in President Bush's fiscal 2007 budget request is driven by the Homeland Security Department, according to a new report from a market research firm.
The analysis, published Thursday by Reston, Va.-based INPUT, found that nearly 50 percent, or $772 million, of new IT funding proposed by Bush would go to DHS. This would represent a 21 percent increase over funding levels enacted in fiscal 2006, bringing the department's total technology funding to more than $4.4 billion.
Overall, the Bush administration is requesting $64.3 billion for IT in fiscal 2007, a 3 percent increase over the congressionally appropriated amount for fiscal 2006, but a drop from the $65 billion sought for this year. Of the total for fiscal 2007, $5.2 billion has been allotted to cybersecurity, according to the report.
The Office of Management and Budget's project to eliminate redundant business processes across agencies -- known as the lines of business initiative -- also received significant priority in the budget proposal, said James Krouse, acting director of public sector market analysis at INPUT.
OMB is sending the message that performance matters in determining budget levels, he added, particularly by reviewing "agency-by-agency progress reports on meeting administration goals for managing IT projects and developing effective business cases."
The Housing and Urban Development Department, for example, received a 15 percent budget increase, the largest after DHS, Krouse said. This was because all of HUD's business cases were accepted and the department led the government with the smallest IT project cost overruns and schedule delays, he said.
Other agencies that received IT budget boosts under Bush's request included the Labor Department, with an increase of more than 13 percent, and the Interior Department, with an increase of nearly 9 percent, the report stated.
The proposal would cut technology budgets for six agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management, which received a 5 percent decrease, and the General Services Administration, which would get a reduction of nearly 2 percent.