Obama's Budget Calls For Shifts In IT SpendingObama's Budget Calls For Shifts In IT Spending

President Obama's budget, released this week, asks for more than $400 million in cybersecurity spending for the Department of Homeland Security, $1.3 billion in new broadband spending, and additional funds for a smart energy grid and health care information technology.

Under the budget, the Department of Defense, the agency that spends the most on information technology already, would get a number of budget increases, but would also see a decrease in almost $600 million in spending on its next-generation Future Combat Systems initiative.

Other tech-heavy programs that would see spending cuts include a $52 million reduction on the Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio effort and a $311 million cut on a battlefield network effort called the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical.

The Defense Department would get $237 million to expand airborne "Full Motion Video" surveillance, including high-definition upgrades, and an increase of $114 million on the Joint Tactical Radio System. Overall, the budget includes a whopping $57.2 billion for communications and mission support systems and $10.5 billion for Command, Control, Communications and Computer Systems.

The Department of Homeland Security, another big spender, would see a number of changes in spending on IT. They would include $400 million to protect critical infrastructure and IT networks from hackers, a $75 million increase for cybersecurity spending by a few subagencies like US-CERT, $39 million in new spending to standardize IT acquisitions and "streamline maintenance and support contracts," $40 million on "smart security" on the Canadian border, a $21 million increase on authentication and RFID technology at land border crossings, and $25 million for smart card issuance.

The budget calls for $71 million in new spending for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement IT, including detainee tracking, case management, data warehousing, and data center consolidation, as well as $20 million in new IT spending for the Secret Service. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, which sets many of the tech standards for the government, would get $70 million for the Technology Innovation Program, which funds high-tech entrepreneurs. President Bush left that funding out of his fiscal 2009 budget, though Congress funded the effort this year anyway. NIST would also get an increase of $60 million for standards development, including $19 million for standards relating to health care IT and smart grids.

Help For Fighting Ponzi Schemes

The Securities and Exchange Commission, its reputation somewhat battered by the financial crisis, would increase its enforcement budget from $331 million to $353 million, focusing on "areas most at risk for fraud or other serious violations that could harm investors, such as market manipulation through the circulation of false rumors, subprime lending, auction rate securities, hedge funds, institutional insider trading, and ponzi schemes." The spending increase would largely help with forensic data analysis technologies similar to those used by the law firms it faces in court.

Meanwhile, within the Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service spending on information services would increase $157 million to $1.9 billion, as well as $254 million for continued improvements to taxpayer databases and increased use of electronic filing systems.

A number of other agencies are seeing big changes in IT spending as well. The Department of Justice seeks $44 million in new spending on a number of strategic IT projects, including $21 million on a financial management system. Justice is also looking for $25 million to buy more mobile radios for a nationwide wireless law enforcement network. The Department of Education seeks a $169 million cut in spending on the Enhancing Education through Technology program, though that is offset by $650 million in similar spending in the stimulus package.

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