Obama Cuts, But Not Security

If you had reservations about the importance of cybersecurity to President Obama, his fiscal 2012 budget guidance ought to give you some relief. The president has requested a five percent cut in discretionary spending, but only to all non-security agencies.

"This will allow the president's budget to accomplish an overall non-security discretionary freeze," wrote Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, in a memorandum to all the heads of departments and agencies. However, Orszag adds that "tight budget targets will also be imposed on security-related agencies."

Of course, we won't know how this affects agencies and their implementation of any new security measures, whether by congressional mandate or otherwise. It's also worth noting that by "security," Obama is referring to all of our security defenses.

You can find the entire memo from OMB here.