Cybersecurity, info sharing: House approves 2010 funding boost

Members of the House approved a spending bill that would boost funding for key Justice Department technology programs in fiscal 2010.

The bill, approved late last week, would provide Justice with more than $109.4 million for the Justice Information Sharing Technology fund, which is used for corporate technology investments. That sum is significantly more than the $80 million the fund got this year, although less than the $123.6 million President Barack Obama requested for the program.

The bill sets aside a minimum of approximately $21.1 million of that money for the development of Justice’s unified financial management system. Also, according to a report explaining the legislation, the Appropriations Committee recommends allocating approximately $27.4 million of the fund to strengthen the cybersecurity efforts.

The report states that the committee supports the department's “efforts to better protect its networks and other information technology assets and hopes that these resources will allow [Justice] to achieve the same success in its cybersecurity implementation as it has achieved on its [Federal Information Security Management Act] report card.”

In addition, the spending bill would provide more than $205.1 million for Justice’s Tactical Law Enforcement Wireless Communications program, as Obama requested. That sum is about $20 million more than the $185 million that Justice received for the program this year.

The report explaining the legislation said the committee recommended that the money include an increase of more than $20.1 million for the continued development and deployment of Justice’s Integrated Wireless Network.

A Senate Appropriations Committee subcommittee is set to consider a bill to fund Justice for fiscal 2010 June 24, with consideration of that measure by the full Senate Appropriations Committee planned for June 25.