White House looks to IT to provide efficiencies, report says

President Obama's budget request focuses on ways to cut information technology costs through consolidation and modernization efforts that will increase efficiency, according to a report released by IT research firm Government Insights.

"The presidential budget is a good gauge into where the federal government spending priorities are headed and which programs are favored," the report stated. "However, throw in the volatile nature of the current public mood and the pressure on a Congress up for election, and this could be a more interesting year than usual."

The fiscal 2011 budget submitted to Congress last week includes $79.4 billion in IT spending across all agencies, a slight decrease from the $80.8 billion budget in fiscal 2010. The proposed budget is a 1.2 percent increase from the White House's fiscal 2010 IT budget request of $78.4 million.

According to the report, the fiscal 2011 budget request represents 7,463 IT programs and investments, many of which seek to decrease infrastructure costs.

The Homeland Security Department budgeted a total of $398.5 million for its Office of the Chief Information Officer, of which $315.7 million will be used for development and acquisition of IT equipment, software, services and related activities. Almost $83 million would go to continue building the DHS data center, including $38.5 million for improved power efficiency at the National Center for Critical Information Processing and Storage, known as Data Center One and based at NASA's Stennis Space Center.

The Treasury Department's $3.4 billion IT budget includes more than $8 billion for modernization programs at the Internal Revenue Service, including a multiyear strategy to improve services and compliance with tax collection requirements. The Veterans Affairs Department will focus a portion of its $3.4 billion IT budget on modernized information systems and paperless processing systems, and among the projects that the Transportation Department's $3.4 billion budget will fund is an upgrade of data systems for air traffic control and the integration of IT systems for traffic and transit management.

"Overall, the federal government clearly is spending money to save money for the long term, with many current spending plans targeted at system consolidation and other solutions that will allow agencies to reduce long-term costs, machine costs," the report stated.