President’s $64B 2007 Information Technology Budget Builds On Results; E-Government Initiative Adds New Lines of Business

The President’s Fiscal Year 2007 Budget provides $64 billion in funding for information technology (IT) investments, an increase of almost three percent from the 2006 enacted level of $62B.

“This budget strongly supports the President’s commitment to protecting the homeland, winning the Global War on Terror, and exercising fiscal restraint.” said Karen Evans, the Administrator of E-Government and Information Technology within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). “This level of investment recognizes the importance of enabling information technology as a critical tool for improving service delivery and delivering results for the American taxpayer.”

In support of the Administration’s priorities, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will increase IT spending by approximately 21 percent to improve operational efficiencies and better secure the homeland. Most of this increase will directly support efforts to improve information-sharing within the Department by optimizing office automation and infrastructure.

The FY 2007 budget continues to support the Administration’s commitment to the Health Information Technology (HIT) initiative and includes a total of $4.6 billion for health-related IT investment, an increase of $234 million (5.3 percent) over the FY 2006 enacted level. The HIT initiative is designed to help Americans safeguard their health by ensuring medical information is accurate, consistent, and secure; reducing the chances of medical errors while increasing the efficiency of health care delivery. “We are at a crossroads in the area of health information technology, where we will be able to leverage Federal health information technology efforts in collaboration with the private sector - particularly in the areas of biosurveillance, electronic health records, chronic care delivery, and consumer empowerment,” Evans said. The HIT initiative is designed to help Americans safeguard their health by ensuring medical information is accurate, consistent, and secure; reducing the chances of medical errors while increasing the efficiency of health care delivery.

“E-Government is transforming and improving government service delivery to the citizen, by making more information accessible through common government wide solutions and eliminating duplicate systems within agencies,” Evans said. “Building on the successful efforts of the interagency taskforces to identify the common solutions for our existing Lines of Business activities, OMB will expand this year’s efforts to include three new Lines of Business, while continuing to move forward on the work already in progress,” she continued.

The Lines of Business activities identify common government wide solutions to consolidate, standardize, and share services across multiple Federal agencies and aligns the agencies’ activities with program performance. Current Lines of Business include: Financial Management; Human Resources Management; Case Management; Grants Management; Federal Health Architecture; and Information Systems Security.

In FY 2006, three new Lines of Business are being introduced: IT Infrastructure, Geospatial, and Budget Formulation. Collectively, these new Lines of Business present opportunities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Federal government while generating cost savings and results on behalf of citizens.

“Expanding the Federal Government’s portfolio to include these new Lines of Business is an opportunity for all of the agencies,” Evans said. “By building on the results of our work thus far, we can optimize taxpayers’ investment and deliver the service quality and efficiency they expect from their government,” she concluded.

The President’s Budget may be viewed at: www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget

Background briefing slides on the information technology portion for the Budget are available: