HUD slashes tech funding goals

President Bush's fiscal 2005 budget has proposed a double-digit drop in the Department of Housing and Urban Development's information technology spending allotment.

If the budget is adopted as is, HUD's IT budget would be cut to $336 million, from this year's $428 million level -- a decrease of 21.5 percent. But despite the drop, the department is planning some improvements.

For example, $28.5 million has been budgeted for HUD's Integrated Financial Management Improvement Maintenance that will manage flow of financial information across departmental systems.

Department officials are also proposing $8.4 million for a Single Family Integration System, which is integrating four legacy systems supporting the single-family mortgage origination process. Another project is enhancing the Public and Indian Housing Information Center that supports the multibillion-dollar Public and Indian Housing program.

There are also several smaller allocations for modernizing or enhancing administrative and e-government initiatives.