Now We Know: 2008 IT Request Up 2.3%

With the passage of the final fiscal 2007 spending bills earlier this year, the Office of Management and Budget could finally figure out exactly how the proposed fiscal 2008 information technology spending compares with fiscal 2007.

The answer: The fiscal 2008 spending request of $66.4 billion represents a 2.3 percent increase from fiscal 2007, according to an updated annual report. That's a bit lower than OMB's 2.6 percent guess when the budget was released in February. That continues a trend over the past few years of ever smaller increases in IT spending. The Bush administration asked for a 3 percent increase in fiscal 2007.

The details for the IT spending are normally released with the annual budget submission in February, but agencies were unable to produce the information needed for the report due to the delay in completion of the fiscal 2007 appropriations process.