Bush Seeks Nearly $60 Billion In New IT SpendingPosted on 01/23/2003 3:09:49 AM PST by Uncle Bill
Bush Seeks Nearly $60 Billion In New IT Spending
GovExec.com
By Shane Harris
January 21, 2003
President Bush will ask Congress for $59 billion in new information technology spending when he submits his 2004 budget next month. The request is $6 billion more than last year’s proposal and reflects the government’s increased investments in technology to support homeland security and the war on terrorism, an administration official said this week.
The fiscal 2004 budget also focuses on computer security, automation and development of enterprise architectures. The bulk of IT spending—$37 billion—would be devoted to projects directly related to agency missions. The budget would also provide more than $4.7 billion in new funding for computer security.
Mark Forman, the associate director of IT at the Office of Management and Budget, detailed the president’s budget request during a speech Monday at a conference in San Diego sponsored by Oracle, one of the largest IT contractors in the federal market. Forman said some agencies are buying the same technology products rather than sharing resources. He also said few agencies had developed enterprise architectures. Forman noted these problems were endemic to agencies when he took office two years ago.
Forman noted that more than $21 billion has been budgeted for more than 750 federal IT projects on an OMB “at risk list.” To get off that list, an agency must prove to OMB that its projects are not only worth funding, but that they meet administration standards in such areas as security.
Forman, the president’s point man on electronic government, announced no new technology policy initiatives, and repeated his frequent call upon agencies to make more of their services available online to citizens and business. While he placed great emphasis in his speech on the potential of e-government at civilian agencies, technology analysts agree that homeland security and defense IT spending will siphon money away from those projects.
Meanwhile, Congress still hasn’t passed the full fiscal 2003 budget, and technology projects across government are in a holding pattern. Upgrades to antiquated systems in many Homeland Security agencies, including the Customs Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Coast Guard, are all being held to the previous year’s spending levels, which means little to no new work can begin. That’s problematic for the new department’s managers as they try to organize nearly two dozen agencies, as well as their IT systems, to coordinate the global war on terrorism.
Also, the government hasn’t delivered $3.5 billion in grants to state and local governments to equip emergency responders with new technological equipment and training. Several governors and a range of city officials have complained that Washington expects them to pay for homeland security at a time when many of their budgets are running enormous deficits.
U.S. Government Flunks Computer Security Tests
"Mark Forman, the OMB's associate director of information technology and e-government, said the White House office is warning federal department heads that it plans to slash funding for IT programs that consistently lack security protections."
..."The U.S. government has earned failing marks for computer security for the second year in a row, according to a report released today by a congressional oversight committee.
More than half of 24 major federal agencies flunked the latest "computer security report card," according to a House Government Reform subcommittee. The Justice, Defense, Energy and Treasury departments earned failing grades; the Department of Transportation received the lowest score."
Here is a list of what grades the GAO assigned to the agencies:
B-minus: Social Security Administration
C-plus: Labor Dept.
C: Nuclear Regulatory Commission
D-plus: Commerce Dept., NASA
D: Education Dept., General Services Administration
D-minus: Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation, Dept. of Health and Human Services
F: Depts. of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior, Justice, State, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Treasury and Veterans' Administration. Also, U.S. Agency for International Development, Office of Personnel Management, Small Business Administration, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency
$3,400,000,000,000 (TRILLION) OF TAXPAYERS' MONEY IS MISSING
THE WAR ON WASTE - Rumsfeld Says 2.3 Trillion Dollars Missing
How Conservative Is President Bush?
Washington's $782 Billion Spending Spree
How Big Is the Government's Debt? - $33.1 Trillion
"President Bush served for six years as the 46th Governor of the State of Texas, where he earned a reputation as a compassionate conservative who shaped public policy based on the principles of limited government.."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/president/gwbbio.html
George W. Bush's Limited Government
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HUD Chief: Bush to Ask for Bigger Budget
The Associated Press
Via ABC News
January 22, 2003
Source
Housing Secretary Says Bush to Ask for More Money in 2004 for Affordable Housing
President Bush wants Congress to increase spending on programs that create more affordable housing for low- and moderate-income people, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez said Wednesday.
Bush's budget proposal for 2004, which will go to Congress next month, will seek to raise spending on the HOME Investment Partnerships Program by $113 million to $2.2 billion, Martinez said.
The block grant program allows over 600 state and local housing agencies to choose the best way to create affordable housing, the department said. For example, some cities may use the money to buy land for new housing projects, while others may put it toward renovating older homes.
Martinez, who spoke to reporters via conference call while attending a meeting of the National Association of Home Builders in Las Vegas, also said the budget plan would ask for $200 million to help about 40,000 low- and middle-income families become first-time home buyers. The department made the same request in its 2003 budget, which has yet to be approved by Congress.
Martinez said he did not expect a large overall increase in the department's budget for the financial year that begins Oct. 1. Last February, the administration asked for $34.6 billion for HUD in 2003, a 12 percent increase from 2002.
"I think anticipating anything other than pretty level funding from prior years is unrealistic," Martinez said about the 2004 request.
Martinez's announcement came a week after HUD said it was $250 million short this year because of faulty accounting, forcing temporary budget cuts of almost one-third to local authorities that rent housing to the poor. HUD said it hoped to provide more money later in the year.
Martinez said Wednesday he hoped to give the local officials 90 percent of the funds they sought.
Bush Budget Would Boost Spending on Fisheries, Secretary Norton Says
The Associated Press
Via ABC News
January 22, 2003
Source
President Bush will propose a 16 percent increase in spending to restore and improve the nation's fisheries, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said Wednesday.
In a speech to employees of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Norton said the budget Bush will propose next month includes $58 million for the National Fish Hatchery System up from $50 million in the current budget year.
The president also will seek increased spending to combat invasive species such as the voracious northern snakehead found last year and later eradicated from a suburban Maryland pond, Norton said.
She said the proposed increase was a direct result of improvements made in the fisheries program, which has been plagued for years by lawsuits, excessive paperwork and poor coordination with other agencies and outside groups, such as sportsmen and Indian tribes.
"Help is on the way," Norton told about 500 Fish and Wildlife workers at a national conference. "You have labored to come up with a strategic plan that has convinced Washington that it is time to increase your funding. Now it is going to be up to you to ... follow through."
Norton was referring to a plan developed by the agency to emphasize greater coordination with state and federal agencies, as well as tribes, conservation groups and the fishing industry.
The new "Strategic Vision" states that successful fishery management is achieved best through partnerships. It includes a set of criteria for agency programs, including the likelihood of measurable results and significant economic or social benefits.
Daniel Diggs, assistant fisheries director for the agency's Pacific Northwest office, called the initiative a "jumping-off point" to reconnect with the agency's traditional partners, including some it has been at odds with for years.
"Everything we do requires working with others," Diggs said. "We can't get anything done by ourselves, so this is very exciting."
As outlined by Norton, the proposed spending increase includes $2.5 million for hatchery restoration projects, such as the juvenile spring chinook in Oregon.
Another $3 million would improve aging pumps, pipelines and electrical systems, while $1.5 million would increase hatchery production for threatened species, such as pallid sturgeon and greenback cutthroat trout.
The proposed budget would spend $5.5 million to fight invasive species up from $4.5 million this year.
HOW TERRORISTS HAVE INFILTRATED AMERICA
"There are over 1,200 mosques in the United States, and anywhere from three to eight million Muslims (the figure is heavily disputed, although new studies clearly indicate the number at the lower end of the range). .. Yet for one key reason, the extremists have disproportionate influence. One prominent cleric argued in 1999 that "because they are active they took over…more than 80 percent of the mosques that have been established in the U.S."
Although our pluralist ideals tend to view this statement as an automatic exaggeration, the reality is far more sobering. The vast majority of American mosques are funded with Saudi Arabian money, and most of the funders subscribe to the Saudi doctrine of Wahhabism, an 18th-century ideology of extreme purity that supports the spread of Islam through violence. Local imams can be appointed by anyone who chooses to fund and/or found a mosque; hence, the influence of this minority ideology is well entrenched among American clerics."
Bush is promoting and signing legislation that will facilitate and fund terrorists cells throughout the United States
Bush to urge more FY2004 funds for home heating help
"President George W. Bush will propose extra money to help poor Americans pay their winter heating bills as part of his fiscal 2004 budget proposal, a White House spokesman said on Wednesday.
"The president is concerned about the rising price of energy," spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.
Fleischer declined to say how much of an increase in funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) would be proposed. The program helps more than 4 million poor U.S. households pay for energy costs.
Late Tuesday, the Senate voted to provide an extra $300 million for the 2003 program as part of a $390 billion spending package meant to wrap up last year's unfinished federal budget.
Oil prices have soared in recent weeks on jitters over possible war with Iraq, the Venezuelan general strike and icy weather.
Socialism won the 2000 election
Me too.
Bush Administration Rescinds Medicaid ER Policy
"Under fire from critics, the Bush administration Wednesday canceled a policy put in place last month that would have allowed states to place limits on emergency care for Medicaid patients.
"Due to the concerns we heard from you and others, the will be notifying states that we are rescinding the December 20 letter and that the previous guidance is to be followed," CMS Administrator Tom Scully wrote in a letter to members of the US Senate Finance Committee. Scully met with the Senators and their staff on Tuesday to hear their complaints about the policy.
Scully had defended the policy only hours before it was reversed. Speaking at the National Health Policy Conference, Scully said he thought the policy allowing states to impose limits on emergency room care for Medicaid patients in managed care plans "was pretty well thought out."
BUMP!!!
Regards.
... increasingly groovy graphics.
Those free AARP computer courses down at the community college are paying off, guy!! Aren't you glad you started wearing shoes?
Oh sorry -- I was dreaming for a moment that the GOP actually hadn't morphed into a fiscal Socialist clone of the Democratic Party.
A whole bunch of folks able to jump in on the "stakeholder" bandwagon.
Now where have I heard that term "stakeholder" before...Oh yeah, Agenda 21. And speaking of Agenda 21, what does it have to say...
Agenda 21 - Chapter 17
17.1 d. Sustainable use and conservation of marine living resources under national jurisdiction;
Another finger pointing at the UN's meddling. Ya gotta read it to believe it.
LOL! I still cut holes in the front for my toes to breathe.
LOL! Yes, we need a 2nd party don't we.
The real implications of globalization
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