FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 7, 2008
Contact: OMB Communications, 202-395-7254

FY 2009 President’s IT Budget: Improving Service Delivery, Information Security and Spending Taxpayers Money Wisely

Washington, DC — Today, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) provided more detail on the President’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 Information Technology (IT) Budget. The President’s FY 2009 Budget provides nearly $71 billion in funding for information technology (IT) investments, approximately a 6.8 percent increase over the FY 2008 President’s 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 FY09, information security spending is proposed for nearly $7.2 billion, up 73 percent since 2004. 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.

“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.”

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.

“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 Evans.  “OMB is leading by example and we are very proud of this historic accomplishment.”

The Report on IT Spending for the Federal Government (Exhibit 53) is available at www.budget.gov. It provides details of the Administration’s proposed 2009 IT investments. Related documents on IT security and Electronic Government (E-Government) are also available at www.budget.gov. 

###