Draft 2023 Spending Plan Includes $100M for Tech Modernization Fund

House appropriators proposed adding another $100 million next year to the Technology Modernization Fund, the largest single addition through the annual budget process since the fund was created.

The House Appropriations Committee released a slew of draft 2023 funding bills this week, including the Financial Services and General Government bill, which includes the Executive Office of the President, under which the TMF sits.

The fund—established in 2017 as part of the Modernizing Government Technology Act—was initially given $100 million to get started. Over three administrations, officials requested hundreds of millions of dollars, but Congress opted to add $25 million a year over the first three years of the fund’s life.

Then, the fund was allocated $1 billion as part of the 2021 American Rescue Plan—the second stimulus package passed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. That infusion brought the total lifetime allocation to $1.175 billion and prompted the administration to relax some of the repayment requirements.

The TMF Board has since awarded $400 million of that $1 billion, with plans to allocate most, if not all of the remaining ARP funds by the end of fiscal 2022.

The draft 2023 appropriations bill will be marked up Thursday by the FSGG subcommittee before moving to the full committee for consideration.