[infowar.de] Bush budgets $52 billion for IT

[Olivier Minkwitz <minkwitz -! - hsfk - de>]

Infowar.de, http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~bendrath/liste.html
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Bush budgets $52 billion for IT
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0128/web-budget-02-01-02.asp
 BY Judi Hasson and Diane Frank
 Feb. 1, 2002

 President Bush will seek $52 billion for federal information technology
programs in fiscal 2003, a
 dramatic 15.6 percent increase stemming from the administration's focus
on using IT to improve
 government performance and the response to the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks.

 The request to increase the IT budget from $45 billion in fiscal 2002
to $52 billion in fiscal 2003 is
 necessary to focus on the three goals outlined in the president's State
of the Union address ? terrorism,
 homeland security and the economy ? said Mark Forman, associate
director for information
 technology and e-government at the Office of Management and Budget.

 It is also tied to the major management push from the administration
for "better use of IT to drive
 performance," he said.

 "This IT budget represents an unprecedented review of the major systems
in the federal government," he
 said. The review included a scorecard for the president's five
management agenda items ? including
 e-government ? and a focus on the requirement that every system request
have a business case for
 how the money would improve performance.

 In a telephone briefing with reporters today, Forman said the budget
request includes an estimated $18
 billion for more than 900 major projects and $11.5 billion for another
2,000 "significant" projects. The
 request does not include money that ultimately will be earmarked for
"black budget" spending on
 classified programs or that is going into block grants to state and
local IT investments for emergency
 personnel, he said.

 In fiscal 2002, the federal government spent $45 billion on IT, but
Congress approved some IT funding
 as part of the supplemental spending passed after Sept. 11.

 Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), chairman of the House Government Reform
Committee's Technology and
 Procurement Policy Subcommittee, said the $52 billion request "reflects
the importance of technology in winning the war on terrorism
 and the significant benefits of e-government for all government
agencies."

 A significant part of the IT budget that is growing in relation to the
rest of the request is for information security, including programs to
 support the Office of Homeland Security and Richard Clarke, the
president's cyberspace security adviser, Forman said.

 Forman attributed the growth in information security funding to two
factors: OMB's requirement that funding requests for information
 systems include appropriate security requests and the agency responses
to the vulnerability assessments performed under the
 Government Information Security Reform Act. As agencies dealt with both
of these requirements, the business case clearly called for
 increased funding to ensure the security of their systems, Forman said.

 The request for double-digit growth in the IT budget comes when overall
domestic discretionary spending is being held flat.

 "I think it signifies the recognition of the way technology can be
applied to improve services...improve homeland security and
 contribute to the president's goals," said Alan Balutis, executive
director of the Federation of Government Information Processing
 Councils.

--

Olivier Minkwitz___________________________________________
Dipl. Pol., wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter
HSFK Hessische Stiftung für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung
PRIF Peace Research Institute Frankfurt
Leimenrode 29 60322 Frankfurt a/M Germany
Tel +49 (0)69 9591 0422  Fax +49 (0)69 5584 81
Mobil   0172  3196 006
http://www.hsfk.de
minkwitz -!
- hsfk -
 de___________________________________________



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