The fiscal year (FY) 2024 Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) appropriations bill released by the House and Senate Appropriations Committees today aims to rescind $100 million in funding for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) that Congress approved in 2021 as part of a $1 billion infusion into the fund.
The FY2024 FSGG appropriations bill is one of six funding bills that need to be approved by Congress by midnight on Friday to avoid a shutdown of about 70 percent of Federal government operations.
The FSGG bill does not elaborate on reasons for the proposed TMF funding clawback, merely stating “Section 637 rescinds $100,000,000 from the American Rescue Plan from the Technology Modernization Fund.”
The proposed $100 million recession is substantially less than the $290 million clawback approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee in July 2023 when it was working on the FY2024 FSGG funding bill.
The Biden administration’s FY2025 budget request unveiled earlier this month proposes $75 million of new funding for TMF.
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who was a prime mover in Congress for the fund’s $1 billion cash infusion under the American Rescue Plan Act, lashed out at the claw-back contained in the FSGG legislation unveiled today.
“The draconian zeroing out and rescinding of these vital funds will only jeopardize the health and safety of veterans, first responders, and families that rely on government services every day,” the congressman said. We have got to stop treating government IT as a luxury.”
“The TMF is not a slush fund to be raided when budget negotiations get tough,” he said. “It is a vital part of the federal government’s technology infrastructure and it plays an indispensable role in ensuring government agencies are functioning at their best on behalf of the American people we serve. I am deeply disappointed in the decision to slash this funding, but I will not stop fighting until our government has the resources it needs to keep up with 21st Century technological demands.”
TMF said in its FY2023 Impact Report that it made $177 million of new investments in 18 projects across 17 agencies.
Most recently, the fund said in February that its looking for proposals from Federal agencies centered on their use of artificial intelligence technologies.
The TMF, which is administered by the General Services Administration (GSA), was created in 2017 under the Modernizing Government Technology Act to provide money to Federal civilian agencies to undertake tech modernization projects.
Elsewhere in the FSGG bill released today, appropriators also are looking for a $10 million claw back in funding for the Information Technology Oversight and Reform Fund overseen by the Office of Management and Budget.
