Running tab: Agency IT budgets at a glance

President Barack Obama’s proposed 2012 federal budget calls for a slight increase in overall IT spending, but not all departments or projects will get a boost. Some, in fact, face significant cuts.

Reporters from the 1005 Government Information Group have been poring over the budget, looking for details proposed IT spending at federal agencies. Here’s a quick look at the proposed IT budgets for some of them; the list will be updated as more reports come in.

Agriculture Department

Request: About $406 million for USDA's IT programs in fiscal 2012, compared with the $404 million expected in the fiscal 2011 continuing resolution and the $396 million spent on those programs in fiscal 2010.

USDA's IT funding gets slight increase in budget proposal

Air Force

Request: The service has requested a $166.3 billion budget, $4.5 billion less than the $170.8 billion requested for fiscal 201, and plans to make up the money through efficiency savings in IT and other areas. Savings of $1.9 billion would come from operations and maintenance, including consolidation efforts in IT and communications. The Air Force would make modest increases in spending on research, development, test and evaluation, with $19 billion requested for fiscal 2012, up from $18.2 billion in 2011.

Air Force budget would save on IT, other areas

Army

Request: A $144.9 billion base budget with an added $71.1 billion for overseas contingency operations. The proposal calls for $5.1 billion for communications and electronics equipment, including $2.1 billion for joint and combat communications, and for funding the final deployment of the on-the-halt increment of the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) system and begin work on the program’s on-the-move increment. Funding also would accelerate deployment of the Joint Tactical Radio System and the installation of the Information Infrastructure Modernization Program. An additional $288 million would be use for tactical surveillance equipment, such as night vision thermal weapons sights, and the Long Range Advanced Scout Surveillance System. Research and development would get $9.7 billion, down from $10.3 billion in fiscal 2011.

Army's budget focuses on modernization, includes IT programs

Defense Department

Request: A base budget of $553 billion, which represents modest growth over last year’s budget, a $22 billion increase over the fiscal 2010 budget and an increase in cybersecurity research. Spending on intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, science and technology and cybersecurity research and development would increase, with several billion proposed for next-generation capabilities. The request includes $2.3 billion for cyber resources and development, and $500 million for Defense Advanced Research Project Agency research and development in cybersecurity.

Request: Energy’s request for $29.5 billion, which would be a 12.7 increase from its 2010 budget, would focus on clean-energy initiatives, new power technologies, and increasing research and development efforts. DOE will also trim costs by ending some research initiatives and freezing staff pay and bonuses at its national laboratories. The budget calls for $425 million to support the “SunShot” solar power initiative, $64 million for offshore wind farms, $59 million for geothermal power initiatives and $550 million to fund further energy research through the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy.

DOE seeks funds for clean fuel, nuclear power

Homeland Security Department

Request: About $43.2 billion for the Homeland Security Department in fiscal 2012, an increase of $309 million above the 2010 enacted level, less than a 1 percent increase.

Projected for increased funding: U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services, up 55 percent, to $365 million; the Science & Technology Directorate, up 18 percent, to $1.2 billion; DHS management, up 15 percent, to $1.3 billion; Secret Service, up 14 percent, to $1.7 billion; and Customs and Border Protection, up 2.6 percent, to $10.4 billion.

Projected for substantial cuts: National Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, down by 12 percent, to $331 million; Transportation Security Administration, down by 7.3 percent, to $5.1 billion; and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, down by 4.6 percent, to $6.8 billion.

Projected flat budgets: National Protection and Programs Directorate, overseeing infrastructure, at $1.4 billion, which represents a drop of 1 percent, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, at $5.5 billion, which is a 1 percent increase

Homeland Security requests flat budget

Justice Department

Request: A 2 percent increase in fiscal 2012, for a budget of $28.2 billion. But several technology programs would see cuts, including the decade-old Integrated Wireless Network program, whose budget would be cut in half, from $206 million in fiscal 2010 to $103 million. The Justice Information Sharing Technology account's funding also would be decreased, from $95 million  in fiscal 2010 to $54 million from $95 million.

Justice seeks 2 percent budget increase, some IT cuts

Transportation Department

The Obama administration is requesting $129 billion for the Transportation Department in fiscal 2012, a 66 percent increase over fiscal 2010, the last enacted appropriated level. The request includes an increase for the Federal Aviation Administration's struggling NextGen air traffic management system. The administration requested that the FAA receive $18.7 billion to maintain the country’s Air Traffic Control System. The NextGen initiative would receive $1.2 billion of that request, an increase of $70 million from fiscal 2010. A large chunk of the overall budget would go toward improving the country’s roads and railways.

Request: The Treasury budget would 4 percent overall from fiscal 2010 spending, from $13.4 billion to $14 billion, but spending on IT would go down. Treasury plans to reduce its IT expenditures mostly by trimming outsourcing to federal contractors. In addition, Treasury plans to reduce its data centers by consolidating the Financial Management Service and Bureau of Public Debt. The streamlining of IT administration is proposed to cut $75 million from the IRS budget alone, and $200 million departmentwide

IRS is big winner in Treasury Budget request

Veterans Affairs Department

Request: VA is asking for $61.9 billion in gross discretionary funding, which would be a 10.6 percent increase, but nothing more in IT spending. The IT budget would remain at $3.16 billion, the amount approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee for fiscal 2011 in December. That's $145 million less than the fiscal 2010 enacted level of $3.3 billion.  Despite the flat IT budget, some programs would see more funding, including VA’s telehealth program, which would get an increase of $63 million, a hike of 76 percent. The department also wants to spend $183 million to deploy a new paperless system for claims processing and improve veterans’ access to benefits information.

VA asks for 11 percent more but IT budget doesn't change