House stimulus plan packed with $45 billion in technology spending

The $825 billion stimulus bill unveiled on Thursday by House Democrats includes about $45 billion in technology spending, including funding for homeland security, health information technology and expanding broadband access to rural communities.

One of the largest IT items in the 2010 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is $20 billion to expand the use of electronic health records and $15 billion to enhance the electricity grid and to research renewable energy. The bill would also give $6 billion to expand broadband Internet access to rural and underserved areas.

The billions in IT spending could boost what most experts had predicted would be a flat period for federal IT, said Deniece Peterson, principal analyst with market research firm INPUT in Reston, Va.

"I think it brightens the picture a little bit," said Peterson. "We were seeing very minimal growth when looking through the budgets. I think this loosens the budget a bit. There's lots of opportunity there."

The $6 billion for broadband will be distributed mostly in the form of grants to states and localities to help them expand access for broadband as well as wireless Internet access. The bill also allocates $350 million to establish a State Broadband Data and Development Grant Program, which would support an initiative to track broadband availability in every state.

"All along Obama said [expanding broadband access] was a priority for him. I think this is him putting his money where his mouth is," Peterson said. "It's clearly aimed at rural, but also suburban and urban areas. It looks like a lot of the money is going to go through the states through existing and new grant programs."

Peterson said the large amount of money allocated for health IT was significant because it was allocated specifically for expanding electronic health record systems and developing standards, which are crucial to the implementation of nationwide health care network. In addition, the Social Security Administration was allocated $900 million to upgrade its IT platforms and National Computing Center, though a portion of that money might be used to for health IT research.

Renewable energy is another area where the Democrats propose big spending, including $4.5 billion to modernize the electric grid to enhance security and reliability, $2 billion for research on renewable energy. The Democrats would like to give another $8 billion to the Energy Department's Innovative Technology Loan Guarantee program for products that help reduce the number of greenhouse gases and create energy using energy-efficient technologies.

The bill also proposes significant spending to research climate change, including $600 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to accelerate the development of climate sensors and climate modeling capabilities, and $400 million to NASA, $250 million of which would go to accelerate the development of climate research.

NASA also received $150 million to improve aviation safety and research the Next-Generation air traffic control system.

A number of the other projects outlined in the bill focus on facility modernization and construction, which Peterson said easily could include IT components even if they were not specifically stated. For instance, the Indian Health Service received $550 million to repair and modernize its health care facilities and purchase equipment, which the bill says can include health IT.

The Defense Department received $4.5 billion for "facilities sustainment, restoration and modernization programs." Peterson said that money likely would be used to complete projects that have been deferred for some time, possibly including some IT-related initiatives.

The Homeland Security Department would receive $100 million to install nonintrusive detection technology at the country's seaports, in addition to $500 million to purchase and install explosive detection systems and the latest checkpoint technologies at airports.

The bill also included several agencies' specific IT modernization projects that will be funded, including $245 million for the Farm Service Agency to modernize its IT system, $100 million for the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children to implement new management information systems, and $276 million for the State Department to upgrade and modernize its IT platforms.

None of the agencies was available for comment at the time this story was posted.