Federal Government Shutdown Idles Some Tech Projects, but Not Others

The funds authorized by law to operate the US federal government ran out in the midst of a political stalemate between President Barack Obama and Republicans in the US House of Representatives. This means that the federal government has ceased all non-essential operations. Basically, all government work that isn’t related to defense, law enforcement, controlling the borders and managing the flow of air traffic has stopped. Out of a 2.9 million-person workforce, at least 800,000 people, and probably more, have been sent home until further notice. The government is one of the world’s largest consumers of information technology. Total IT investments in the 2013 federal budget were a little north of $78 billion, and that’s down slightly from 2011, when the federal IT budget was about $80 billion.