President Biden’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 budget includes an estimated $58.439 billion in IT spending for Federal civilian agencies, and $500 million for the General Service Administration’s (GSA) Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), according to a budget breakdown the White House released today.
For civilian IT spending, that represents a 2.4 percent increase, or $1.352 billion, more than appropriated for FY2021. The $500 million for the TMF program, originally included in Biden’s skinny budget back in April, builds on the $1 billion Congress appropriated in March as part of the American Rescue Plan Act.
“Federal Information Technology (IT) provides Americans with important services and information and is the foundation of how Government serves the public in the digital age,” the White House said. This funding will be used to, “deliver critical citizen services, keep sensitive data and systems secure, and further the vision of digital Government.”
Among civilian agencies, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will receive the largest portion of this funding, receiving nearly $8.5 billion, or 14.5 percent of total IT spending. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a close second, with Biden requesting $8.15 billion for DHS, or 13.9 percent of the total. Health and Human Services (HHS) and Treasury are the only other two Federal agencies receiving more than 10 percent of the total funding, as Biden is asking for nearly $7 billion for HHS and nearly $6 billion for Treasury – working out to growth of 11.9 percent and 10.2 percent, respectively.
The TMF money provides another infusion into the GSA program, which recently loosened its repayment terms. The administration said it will “prioritize projects that focus on high-priority systems modernization, cybersecurity, public-facing digital services, and cross-government services and infrastructure.”
Department of Defense IT funding was not included in the report.
Other increases
Elsewhere in the budget proposal, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) are also looking at budget increases from FY2021, though less than previously expected for both.
The budget proposal Biden released in April requested $916 million for NIST, which would have represented a $128 million increase from FY2021. The actual budget request gives NIST an $800 million budget, which is just a $12 million increase over the prior year.
NSF is looking at a $765 million increase in funding, with Biden requesting $8.173 billion for research and development funding at the agency. That increase represents a 10 percent bump from the $7.4 billion NSF received in FY2021. However, that’s still a far cry from the $10.2 billion Biden previously signaled he’d request.
