Civilian agencies see small increases in fiscal '07 IT budget
Connecting state and local government leaders
Most civilian, non-security agencies will see only single-digit budget increases under President Bush's fiscal 2007 budget proposal.
The Housing and Urban Development Department has a relatively small IT budget, but President Bush's fiscal 2007 budget requests a 15 percent jump for HUD over last year. HUD received one of the biggest increases for a civilian, nonsecurity agency; most agency increases were in the single digits.
The IT budgets for civilian agencies account for almost one-half, or $33.8 billion, of the $64.3 billion for all federal IT. Excluding the Homeland Security Department, civilian IT budgets are less than $30 billion.
The administration seeks a $40 million increase, to $298 million, for HUD. Two projects account for most of the increase. HUD plans to implement a financial management system under the Financial Management Line of Business and integrate its legacy systems supporting single-family home mortgages.
Among other agencies, the Commerce Department received a 7 percent boost, with systems for the 2010 Census taking most of the increase along with the department's integrated financial management system. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service advanced processing system and high-performance computing system for climate research also received increases.
IT infrastructure, which accounts for the biggest share of Commerce's IT funding, also rose. The proposed budget, however, decreased funding for systems supporting the Patent and Trademark Office.
The Health and Human Services Department would receive a 4.7 percent increase, with increases in its financial management and integrated procurement systems, consolidation and modernization of FDA's compliance program, Medicare claims processing modernization, IT infrastructure consolidation at the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The budget reduces the amount for the Medicare accounting system.
The administration proposal shaves 1 percent from the Treasury Department's IT budget, with a variety of small decreases, including the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's data warehouse. However, the new IRS taxpayer database, the Customer Account Data Engine, gains a significant increase this year. The Modernized e-File initiative for corporate e-filing, however, was trimmed.
Transportation's IT budget edged up 1.1 percent on increases in its departmentwide procurement consolidation under the Prism contract management system, IT consolidation and several projects to modernize the air traffic control and national air space system in the Federal Aviation Administration.