|Originally posted at 10:17 a.m. and updated at 1:11 p.m.|
Under President Bush’s fiscal 2007 budget request submitted to Congress today, agencies would receive an IT budget of $64.2 billion—a 3 percent increase over fiscal 2006.
While the 2006 request was more than $65 billion, the increase for next year would be based on the total dollars Congress enacted for IT in 2006—$62.5 billion, according to budget documents.
The IT budget increase is part of Bush’s overall $2.7 trillion proposal that holds discretionary spending to $870.7 billion, which is a 3.2 percent increase over 2006.
In the budget, the administration said it will launch three new Lines of Business consolidation initiatives for IT infrastructure, budget formulation and geospatial investments.
The IT Infrastructure LOB would focus on consolidation opportunities by defining common specific performance measures for services levels and costs, identifying best practices and developing guidelines for transition plans within or across agencies for activities such as Internet Protocol Version 6.
OMB estimates that agencies could save as much as $29 billion over 10 years by consolidating infrastructure such as help desks, data centers and telecommunications.
Under a Geospatial LOB, the task force will look to identify opportunities to consolidate investments; analyze cost benefits, alternatives and risks; and define roles, responsibilities, performance measures and milestones.
The Budgeting LOB task force will identify opportunities for common automated tools to enhance agency and central processes, including promoting integration and standardization of information exchange, institutionalize budget and performance integration to align programs with their outcomes, and provide agencies with enhanced capabilities to analyze budget performance and financial information.
New Grants LOB Centers of Excellence
The Office of Management and Budget, as expected, named three Grants LOB Centers of Excellence—the Education and Health and Human Services departments, and the National Science Foundation. OMB expects the Grants COEs to help save more than $2.4 billion between 2008 and 2015.
“The target operating model states the grants management community will process grants in a decentralized way using common business processes supported by shared technical support services,” the document said. “This year, the consortia will develop the infrastructure and capabilities necessary to cross-service other agencies, including fee-for-service models with performance metrics.”
Under the Cybersecurity LOB, which was launched last winter, OMB expects to select shared-services providers for training and reporting, while holding off on incident response and product evaluation centers. OMB’s task force last fall had recommended going forward in four areas of LOB with centers of excellence.
The president also requested $5.5 billion for health IT, which is a $100 million increase over 2006.
“The administration will focus on the areas of standards implementation, additional standards development and harmonization, alignment of agency investments and increased interoperability,” the budget said.
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