OPM budgets for retirement systems

Modernizing the government’s retirement systems is the largest item in President Bush’s fiscal 2007 budget request for the Office of Personnel Management. His budget asks Congress to spend $43.2 million for that project, which is a priority of the OPM Director Linda Springer.

OPM’s overall budget request for information technology spending is $186 million for fiscal 2007. In the 2006 budget recently enacted, OPM has $195 million for IT spending. The president had requested $127 million in his fiscal 2006 budget.

Other large-ticket requests in OPM’s IT budget for fiscal 2007 include systems to support employee background investigations, which OPM handles for federal agencies, $13.3 million; USAJobs, the federal employment information system, $7.9 million; and current retirement systems, $14.6 million.

The president requested $36.4 million for integrating OPM’s human resources systems.

The human resources line of business, a governmentwide initiative to consolidate HR systems, would receive $6.7 million if lawmakers accept the president’s numbers. The president’s request is $1.3 million less than the $8.3 million OPM has in its fiscal 2006 budget for the HR line of business.

Another item of interest in the budget: OPM requested no new funding for identity credentialing systems and procedures that become mandatory Oct. 27, 2006. OPM has had $1.4 million available in previous budgets to spend on the credentialing requirement, known as Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12.