White House IT budget request lower in 2011

The White House is proposing increasing technology spending by about $900 million in fiscal 2011, only a 1.2 percent uptick over the fiscal 2010 request.

But overall, the administration's IT budget request would be a decrease of 1.6 percent over the 2010 enacted funding of $80.6 billion. This is in sharp contrast to the previous decade which saw significant increases, including some double digit boosts in the 2000s. To help make up for the small increase, OMB is proposing to centralize non-military technology services across the government. What seems like shades of the Bush administration's lines of business or e-government initiatives, the Obama White House will focus on cloud computing, data center consolidations and other IT services. The Bush administration implemented shared services around human resources, cybersecurity, financial management and other areas. These efforts continue.