FY 09 IT Budget Spring Update Reflects Sustained Commitment to Improved Service Delivery

Washington, DC – Today, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) provided an updated release of the President's Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 Information Technology (IT) Budget. The President's FY 2009 Budget provides nearly $71 billion in funding for IT investments, an approximately 3.8 percent increase over the FY 2008 Enacted Budget.

"This IT amount is consistent with the President's commitment to balance the budget, while protecting the homeland and fighting terrorism," said Karen Evans, Administrator, E-Government and Information Technology. "The budget reflects the investments necessary to improve service delivery and to secure and protect government information while maximizing and spending taxpayer dollars wisely."

In FY2009, information security spending is proposed for over $6.8 billion, a $2.6 billion or 63 percent increase over $4.2 billion, the fiscal 2004 proposed amount. The increase builds upon existing investments to assist agencies' abilities to implement important security controls for managing their information systems' risks. In addition, the President's request would continue support for E-Gov and Lines of Business initiatives which have demonstrated not only significant cost savings, but significant benefits beyond financial savings through government-wide solutions and the elimination of duplicative systems within agencies. The updated budget information can be found at Budget.gov.

Along with this budget update, OMB today is releasing the updated FY 2008 High Risk List and the detailed Management Watch List for FY 2009 investments.

FY 2008 (Q2) Management Watch List

As of March 31, 2008, there were 473 major IT investments on the Management Watch List, representing over $25 billion in FY 2009 IT budget requests. The 473 investments are a 19 percent decline from the original Management Watch List of 585 investments announced when the President's Budget was released in February 2008.

FY 2008 (Q2) High Risk List

The High Risk List now includes 489 projects that were determined to be high risk due to different factors, such as complexity, scope or level of importance. These projects represent over $15 billion in FY 2009 IT budget requests. The 489 projects are a 19 percent decline from the original High Risk List of 601 projects announced when the President's Budget was released in February 2008.

Background on the Two Lists

Under the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996, agencies are required to submit business plans for IT investments to OMB. If the agency's investment plan contains planning weaknesses, it's placed on OMB's Management Watch List and targeted for follow-up action to correct potential planning deficiencies prior to execution. In August 2005, OMB established a High Risk List for IT projects to complement the Management Watch List which focuses on planning aspects for major investments and performance data to ensure agencies and programs are meeting their intended goals and achieving results. Projects on the High Risk List are those requiring special attention from the highest level of agency management, but aren't projects necessarily "at risk" of failure.

Presidential Initiatives

In addition, the President’s request would continue support for E-Gov and Lines of Business initiatives which have demonstrated not only significant cost savings, but significant benefits beyond financial savings through government-wide solutions and the elimination of duplicative systems within agencies.

“E-Rulemaking (Regulations.gov) recently celebrated their fifth year anniversary,” said Evans. “29 Federal agencies are now posting their rulemaking documents on Regulations.gov, a searchable site with more than one million documents available, including 610,000 public comments. This is a prime example of collaborative technology bringing transparency to government process.”

E-Budget

Also, for the first time, the President’s Budget was released as an E-Budget online via www.Budget.gov. This marked the first time in American history the Executive Branch has electronically transmitted a budget proposal. The Executive Clerk used an HSPD-12 approved credential to digitally sign the electronic transmittal of the budget to Congress on February 4, 2008, thus proving the document’s authenticity.

The Executive Clerk of the White House electronically transmits the FY2009 Budget Monday, Feb. 4, 2008.

“Our efforts of the past several years, in particular those related to the President’s E-Government initiative, allow us to successfully and securely develop and submit an E-Budget,” said Karen Evans, the Administrator of E-Government and Information Technology within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). “OMB is leading by example and we are very proud of this historic accomplishment.”

The Report on Technology (IT) Spending for the Federal Government (Exhibit 53) will be published in the Spring of 2008. It will be located at www.budget.gov along with other FY09 budget materials.

The annual report is available on OMB’s web site at:

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

Related document on IT security and Electronic Government (E-Government) also available: