02/10/03; Vol. 22 No. 3

What the ’04 IT budget means for each agency

The Agriculture Department plans to continue developing its enterprise architecture, including a project to connect field offices via a virtual private network. USDA would receive $2.25 billion for IT next year, up from $2.14 billion this year.

The IT budget for the Commerce Department would jump to $1.54 billion, up from $1.36 billion this year. The department would receive a $70 million increase in funding for the Patent and Trademark Office’s modernization. The National Institute of Standards and Technology would get $12 million to develop standards for biometric identification and threat detection.

The president’s proposal earmarks $427 million for IT projects at the Education Department.

The IT budget at the Energy Department would decrease from $2.53 billion this year to $2.51 billion next. DOE plans to spend $751 million on its Advanced Simulation and Computing Campaign to provide improved systems for weapons design. The budget also includes $173.5 million for the Advanced Scientific Computing Research Program for computing and networking research.

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to spend $455 million on IT next year, up from $432 million this year. It would allot $228.3 million to environmental information programs, a boost of $29.2 million. EPA also wants to increase by $32.5 million its spending on systems infrastructure and security initiatives.

The Executive Office of the President is seeking $25 million for organizations in the Office of Management and Budget. This is an increase of $3 million over last year. The Office of Federal Procurement Policy would receive $3 million, a decrease of $1 million from this year, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy would get $7 million, a $2 million increase over the 2003 request.

The General Accounting Office’s IT program office would receive $20 million for next year, up from $19 million for this year.

The president’s proposal identifies $45 million for an E-Government Fund at the General Services Administration to support the 25 Quicksilver initiatives. The agency requested the same amount of money for 2003. The budget tagged $2.5 million for federal enterprise architecture work and $2.1 million for an Extensible Markup Language registry to let agencies share data, structure and business processes. GSA plans to put $2.8 million into E-Travel project management and $4.4 million toward firstgov.gov. The agency also wants to spend $7 million—down from $44.7 million this year—from the Federal Supply Service revolving fund on the Integrated Acquisition Environment, E-Travel and E-Authentication projects.

The Health and Human Services Department plans to spend $4.85 billion on IT next year, part of which will go to consolidating systems at its bureaus. Another major focus will be the E-Grants project to create a federal grants portal.

The budget would allot $371 million for IT projects at the Housing and Urban Development Department, including plans to strengthen financial systems.

The budget would dole out $853 million for IT at the Interior Department. The department would push up by $168 million to $481 million spending on its project to correct the flawed Indian Trust accounting systems. The Geological Survey plans to spend funds on enhancing the geospatial data available through the National Biological Information Infrastructure.

At the Justice Department, financial and IT systems would receive $41.5 million of the total requested $1.93 billion. Of the $41.5 million, $17 million would go to deployment of the Justice Consolidated Office Network, $15 million to a unified financial system and $9.5 million to IT management and oversight. Justice also plans to spend $12 million on the Regional Information Sharing System, $60 million to investigate and respond to cybercrime, and $190 million for crime lab technology.

The Labor Department would see its IT budget drop to $417 million from $443 million. The department has requested $48.6 million for its departmentwide IT Initiative and $20 million to upgrade financial systems.

The president’s proposal for fiscal 2004 would reduce NASA’s IT budget to $2.15 billion from $2.23 billion for this year. The agency plans to spend $79 million on systems and models for climate change research.

The Office of Personnel Management would receive $8 million for new IT projects aimed at increasing efficiency and services to the citizen. It also would get $36.7 million for the Retirement Systems Modernization Project, and a portion of the $750 million earmarked for the agency’s revolving fund would support three e-government projects: E-Clearance, E-Training and Recruitment One-Stop.

At the Securities and Exchange Commission, the administration wants to boost IT spending by $100 million to update SEC systems.

The Social Security Administration IT budget would drop to $851 million, $5 million less than requested for this year. The budget includes $795 million for IT initiatives to “make it easier for the public to conduct business with SSA over the Internet or through automated telephone service, allow SSA to provide more timely and efficient service, reduce erroneous payments, and maintain SSA’s extensive technology systems.”

Next year, the State Department would see a 10 percent boost in IT funds, to $939 million from $852 million. The department plans to consolidate its data-sharing initiatives and improve document archiving. The Agency for International Development would receive $20 million to bolster telecommunications services and systems security.

The Transportation Department would receive $2.6 billion for its IT projects. The department would spend $37.7 million to expand highway system technology and modernize airspace control systems.

The budget included $3.2 billion for IT programs at the Treasury Department. The department would spend $429 million on the IRS systems modernization. Next year, the IRS plans to replace its Master File taxpayer database.

The Veterans Affairs Department plans to spend $1.4 billion on IT, including work on its health care systems and data sharing initiatives.

© 2003 PostNewsweek Tech Media, a division of Post Newsweek Media