Alongside a Federal employee pay raise and $25 million for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), the bipartisan and bicameral Fiscal Year 2020 budget proposal includes IT funding boosts across agencies with an emphasis on cybersecurity.
At the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) would receive a $334 million increase in FY2020 for a total of a $2 billion budget. If approved, this appropriations legislation would also establish the DHS Cyber Hunt and Incident Response Teams to provide timely technical response to cybersecurity incidents. No additional funds were authorized to support the teams.
Department of Defense (DoD) is allotted an additional $268 million for cybersecurity advancements in the FY20 budget proposal. Another $200 million is budgeted to support agencywide 5G and $107 million will go toward other tech infrastructure.
Budget legislators set aside $156 million for Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response at the Department of Energy (DoE). The $36 million increase would help secure energy infrastructure. Also at DoE, Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) would receive an additional $59 million to address economic, environmental, and energy security challenges.
General provisions tacked onto the FY2020 budget proposal would also tweak other Federal IT law. Legislations in the appropriations package would exempt Federal IT acquisition from the Buy American Act in order to promote Federal access to commercial IT. However, text in the legislation specifically prohibits agencies from acquiring telecommunications equipment produced by Huawei.
Additionally, this budget asks agencies to ensure that Federal CIOs participate in all IT-related budget planning alongside agency CFOs, in a way that’s consistent with current OMB guidelines.
Throughout the budget, legislators provided agencies with several other IT-related funds:
- At the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), funding would increase to $1 billion, in part so that the agency can focus on cybersecurity improvements;
- At the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), up to $14 million would be dedicated to technology infrastructure and Trust Fund Federal Financial System modernization;
- At the Department of Labor, just over $25 million would be dedicated to centralized infrastructure technology investment in support systems and modernization;
- At the Social Security Administration (SSA), $45 million would fund IT modernization, such as IT administrative expenses, infrastructure, and equipment;
- At the Federal Office of the CIO, $56 million of the nearly $66.6 million proposed budget would be dedicated toward meeting cybersecurity requirements for the department;
- At the House of Representatives, up to $12 million would go toward meeting IT and security needs;
- At the Library of Congress, legislators cited “urgent” IT and modernization needs as a reason for upping the budget to $725 million; and
- At the White House, $15 million of the proposed budget would be dedicated to IT oversight and reform, specifically to further security, efficiency, and effectiveness of Federal IT. The director of OMB can transfer this money to other agencies with projects that meet this purpose.
