Feds allocate $65 billion for IT in proposed 2008 budget

President Bush's fiscal 2008 budget includes an information technology budget of $65 billion, up 3 percent from fiscal 2007's request. Meanwhile, the feds continue to talk up information technology's power.

"By strategically investing in information technology (IT) and professionally managing those investments, agencies are positioned to more rapidly, securely, and comprehensively provide information resources to Government users and the public."

But the government's Presidential Management Agenda that rides along with the budget reveals mixed technology success. The government says:

• Currently, 88 percent of information systems are certified and accredited, up from 21 percent in 2001. That's progress, but outlining a goal of having all systems secure by 2008 is a bit alarming.
• Sixty percent of agencies can "quantify and articulate" how benefits from their IT projects exceed costs. That means 40 percent of agencies can't.
• Forty-six percent of agencies are achieving 90 percent of costs, schedule and performance goals for major information systems. Again, more than half aren't.

Here's a look at the Feds' cross-agency IT priorities by the numbers:

--$3 billion: Amount allocated in the budget for the "multi-agency Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program." The goal of this program is to plan and coordinate research in "high-end computing systems, cyber security, large-scale networking, software development, high-confidence systems, information management, and other information technologies." Specifically, the 2008 budget "continues the path toward the development of petascale systems for science by both DOE and NSF." In 2007 participating agencies will cook up a federal plan for advanced networking research and development.

$1 billion: Portion of that $3 billion allocation going to the Defense Department. That amount is down 2 percent from the 2007 estimated budget.

$994 million: Portion of that $3 billion allocated to the National Science Foundation.

$463 million: Portion of that $3 billion allocated to Health and Human Services.

--840: Number of major IT investments planned for fiscal 2008, down 2 percent from 867 in 2007.

346: Number of IT projects "not well planned and managed," up 32 percent from 263 in 2007.

 494: Number of projects "well planned and managed," down from 594 in 2007.

--$300 million: Amount saved in fiscal 2006 from the government's SmartBUY program after it consolidated agency contracts with Oracle.

--$18 million: Amount saved annually by an agreement after the Bush administration "established an agreement with the first of several antivirus software developers" in December 2006.

4,619: Number of IT project management positions at agencies.

600: Number of vacant project management positions that need to be filled by agencies.

--9,030: Number of IT security positions.

488: Number of security positions that need to be filled.

--$261 million: Fiscal 2008 budget allocated to the Office of the Chief Information Officer at the Department of Homeland Security. Of that sum, $82.4 million is allocated to staff and expenses with the remainder available for technology development, hardware, software and services. The fiscal 2007 estimated budget is $349 million.

For more details, on specific agencies and projects underway see the budget's appendix.