Government Computer News
Interior, State, other IT budgets focus on specific program growth
Like many other domestic agencies, the Interior Department and its IT programs are scheduled for reductions under the Bush administration’s fiscal 2007 budget proposal. But some technology programs are slated to increase. The budget proposal’s $10.7 billion overall spending allocation is a reduction of $332 million, or 2.9 percent.
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One of the programs slated for an increase is the Geological Survey’s Landsat Data Continuity Mission, which would receive an additional $16 million to build a system to process data from the Landsat 8 satellite set to be launched in 2010. The remote-sensing satellite gathers data important for business, land management and scientific purposes, Interior said.
Also for USGS, the budget proposes creation of a multihazards pilot to merge information on various risk areas into consolidated form to support department planning.
The budget calls for funding several IT initiatives carried out by Interior’s Central Services operation and provided in exchange for fees from the department’s component agencies. The projects include consolidation of the department’s messaging systems into a single enterprise system, creation of an enterprise system for geospatial information and funding for an enterprise services network that provides Internet and intranet access as well as a technical-support center.
Taken together, central IT initiatives are slated to cost less than $122 million. The Central Services organization as a whole is slated to receive $35 million, an increase of $1.7 million from the 2006 level.
A separate account for the Inspector General’s Office calls for an increase of $174 million for computer equipment and software, according to budget documents.
State Department IT pinched
The fiscal 2007 budget request for the State Department calls for a reduction in the Capital Investment Fund that provides funds for IT across the department. It is scheduled to decrease from $76.8 million in 2006 to $68.5 million in 2007.
State’s budget documents note that every department program now depends on IT, and that technology funding is laced throughout the agency’s budget request to the amount of $881 million.
The combined budgets of State, the Agency for International Development and other foreign-affairs agencies amount to $35.1 billion, the department said.
Justice technology forges ahead
The fiscal 2007 budget plan proposes $20.8 billion for the Justice Department, of which $330.8 million will be increases directed at fighting terrorism, the department said.
The FBI’s flagship Sentinel case management system program is slated to receive $100 million in nonpersonnel funding, according to the budget proposal. “Sentinel will serve as the primary information repository used for analysis and reporting for both investigative and administrative casework,” the department said. It will replace the failed Virtual Case File investigative case management system and potentially serve as a model for other agencies under the case management line of business program.
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