Tight budget pinches several agencies' IT spending requests

The Bush administration's fiscal 2008 budget delivered to Capitol Hill earlier this week would give several federal agencies what amounts to a cut over the amount requested last year for information technology, according to data released Wednesday.

The 2008 proposal would give the IT budgets of 11 agencies, including the Homeland Security Department and NASA, reductions over the fiscal 2007 request. The Army Corps of Engineers, Interior Department, U.S. Agency for International Development and Office of Personnel Management, all received cuts of at least 11.6 percent in the proposal.

Another six agencies, including the Defense and State departments, would receive budget increases below the Congressional Budget Office-projected inflation rate of 2.2 percent.

Overall, President Bush's fiscal 2008 IT budget proposal contains an increase of $1.6 billion, or 2.6 percent, over the amount requested for fiscal 2007. Combined, civilian agencies stand to receive a 3 percent increase while the Pentagon, which spends almost as much as the rest of the federal government combined on IT, would receive a 2.1 percent increase.

It would be difficult to calculate how the request compares to the amounts enacted for fiscal 2007, because Congress has yet to finalize spending levels for most agencies, with the exception of the Defense and Homeland Security departments.

Karen Evans, administrator of e-government and information technology at the Office of Management and Budget, said the budget "strongly supports the mission priorities of the federal government while exercising fiscal restraint in meeting the goal of a balanced budget by 2012."

Evans said that, consistent with previous years, agencies with cybersecurity problems were encouraged not to go forward with new IT projects.

The budget proposal includes $5.3 billion for health-related IT investments, a $700 million increase over the fiscal 2007 request. This is reflected in the Health and Human Services Department's 9.9 percent, or $506 million, increase in IT dollars. But the Veterans Affairs Department, which administers a massive health care system, received a $41 million cut in IT spending.

In July, OMB will release a "health transparency score card" to track the progress of agencies in price, quality and health information technology, Evans said. The administration also is emphasizing technologies for finding alternative energy sources, Evans said.

The Small Business Administration would get the largest percentage increase over last year's request, at 75 percent, which represents a $32 million boost.

And the Treasury Department received the largest increase in total dollars for IT of any non-Defense agency, at $560 million, or a 23.4 percent increase over fiscal 2007. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission got a 45.5 percent increase, or $43 million, while the Education Department received 37.4 percent increase, or $151 million.

OMB also released its fiscal 2007 report to Congress on the benefits of the e-government initiatives and its list of high risk IT projects as of Feb. 1.

According to OMB data, 44 agency systems or processes that were duplicative have been shut down, thanks to e-government projects such as ePayroll and eTravel. Another 114 systems are in the planning stages of being shut down.