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GCN Home > 06/28/04 issue

House plans e-gov cuts

By Jason Miller, GCN Staff

Bill targets funds for some projects

Congressional support for e-government initiatives has been shaky from the start, but a recent move sharply undercuts a handful of the projects, even as they near completion.

House lawmakers this month approved a measure to cut $13.3 million from four Quicksilver projects when they passed the fiscal 2005 Interior appropriations bill. Subsequent appropriations bills could also target funding for e-government projects, a House appropriations committee spokesman said.

Specifically, a provision prohibits the departments of Interior and Energy, as well as the Agriculture Department’s Forest Service, from using discretionary money to fund the Disaster Management, E-Rulemaking, E-Training and Safecom initiatives.

“The Office of Management and Budget still has not made a convincing case why Congress should fund these projects and why they are not duplicative,” said John Scofield, appropriations committee spokesman. “The committee will not allow these projects to be funded by agency backdoor transfers.”

Scofield said it is likely that the other agency appropriations bills will include similar language. The 25 Quicksilver projects, overseen by OMB, are cross-agency initiatives designed in part to eliminate duplication of online government services.

The White House objected to the provision in its Statement of Administration Policy about the Interior bill.

“Without full agency participation, the federal government’s ability to deliver information and services to the citizen will be greatly undermined.”

The Senate has yet to mark up its version of the Interior appropriations bill, so it is unclear whether a matching provision exists. After each house of Congress passes an appropriations bill, a conference committee of lawmakers hammers out differences between the measures.

“Sen. [Susan] Collins agrees with the president that e-government initiatives are important and ought to meet their goals, and the Senate is likely to revisit this issue through the appropriations process,” said Andrea Hofelich, spokeswoman for the Governmental Affairs Committee, which Collins (R-Maine) leads.

This latest swipe at e-government project funding follows a three-year history of lawmakers’ dissatisfaction with or misunderstanding of the administration’s initiative.

More news on related topics: E-Government, IT Management