GSA's Web and mobile unit faces 7 percent budget cut

This story has been updated.

A General Services Administration division responsible for guiding part of the government's Web and mobile strategy is slated for a 7 percent cut in President Obama's fiscal 2013 budget request.

A GSA official told Nextgov on Tuesday that the proposed reduction was a result of consolidated information technology infrastructure and shouldn't lead to any reduction in services. Under the request, the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technology's budget would decrease by $2.35 million, from $34.1 million in fiscal 2012 enacted funding to $31.8 million in fiscal 2013.

The office is leading the government's massive website consolidation initiative in cooperation with the Office of Management and Budget and the governmentwide push to develop public-facing mobile applications and mobile-enabled websites.

The office also funds a slate of Web management and social media training programs for federal employees.

Most of the reduction will come from "advisory and assistance services" rather than from employee salaries or printing costs, according to GSA's congressional budget justification.

The GSA official who wasn't authorized to be named said actions taken during fiscal 2012, such as cutting and consolidating federal websites, eliminating some IT licenses, and reducing the number of Web systems and platforms the office runs, contributed to the proposed spending reductions.

About half of federal dot-gov sites either are inactive or redirect to other dot-govs at this point, according to a tally that GSA maintains.

GSA touted similar new efficiencies in several other parts of its budget request, suggesting the agency as a whole is confident it can deliver the same services at a reduced cost, said Gavin Baker, an analyst with the transparency group OMB Watch.

Figures in Monday's budget document are merely the president's request to Congress and could have little to do with actual funding figures that come out of appropriations committees.

The administration's request includes $16.7 million for OMB's electronic-government fund, which also pays for digital transparency initiatives such as Data.gov, the government data set repository. That's slightly more than the fund seems likely to receive from congressional appropriators in fiscal 2012 and double the $8 million it received in fiscal 2011. It's still significantly lower, however, than the $34 million allotted to the fund in fiscal 2010.

Obama also asked for $5 million for a new OMB integrated IT fund, which federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel described Monday as similar to the e-government fund but better suited for short-term projects.

Baker said he's hopeful the $16.7 million e-gov request or something close to it will win congressional support.

"What they've proposed is a modest increase that Congress could realistically support," he said. "On something like taxes, the president's proposal is unlikely to change a lot of Republican's minds, but when it comes to particular things like e-gov, that's a lower profile fund. It's something that's had bipartisan support in the past and it has a history of delivering. So, to some extent, Congress does take the administration's cues here."