President Trump’s FY2020 budget released today includes $150 million for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) and proposes necessary authorities for agencies to establish IT working capital funds under the Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act.
The $150 million offered for TMF is less than the $210 million proposed by the Trump Administration in FY2019, but is significantly higher than the $25 million allocated to the fund in the spending bill signed into law in February of this year.
In addition, the budget makes it clear that agencies are able to establish working capital funds to fund IT modernization efforts, as set forth by the MGT Act–a pet peeve among legislators in recent months.
“The Budget requests necessary transfer authority to better enable agencies to operationalize these IT WCFs and fully implement flexibilities of the MGT provisions,” the document states.
While the White House may want to see TMF receive more funding next fiscal year, the budget proposal released today faces a long road through the House and Senate. During negotiations in Congress last year, the House approved $150 million for TMF, but Senate appropriators offered no funds, instead asking for more data on the success of existing TMF projects. Negotiations between the White House, Senate and House ended up producing the $25 million for TMF in January amid the partial government shutdown.