$59B Tech Budget Proposed For Federal Government

SAN FRANCISCO--The federal government's chief information officer has proposed a $59 billion technology budget for fiscal 2004.

The majority of the 12% increase from the current year would pay for homeland security, according to Mark Forman, associate director of information technology and e-government for the Office of Management and Budget.

The proposal includes $5 billion for information technology related to fighting the war on terrorism, including software and hardware for disaster planning and response. The funds could be used for federal, state or local programs.

It also includes $4.7 billion for computer security--an increase of more than 10 percent from fiscal 2003.

President Bush is expected to propose a national budget in early February.

Forman said Congress is likely to approve the technology budget by late September. The fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

"Everyone understands that IT is critical to the modernization of the federal government," Forman said. "This is not a partisan issue."

Forman, who spoke Monday at Oracle AppsWorld in San Diego, said the government would invest heavily in geospatial technology, which may include subscriptions to satellite services that would allow firefighters to more accurately track the spread of a forest blaze.

"The question always comes down to how fast or how much alert time we have in a forest fire," said Forman, who oversees spending for the largest buyer of IT products and services in the world. "To the extent you can get that data faster, you can make a decision about how to get resources to that fire or even whether to deal with it."