TIGTA: Electronic tax filing slightly up
Taxpayers are electronically filing returns at a slightly higher proportion than last year, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration says, based on interim filing season data. In a newly released March 29 report (.pdf), TIGTA says that as of March 9, 2013, 91.3 percent of taxpayers submitted an e-filed return, as opposed to 89.5 percent of taxpayers on that date last year.
IRS IT programs' cost and schedule metrics unreliable, says GAO
Metrics used by the Internal Revenue Service to ensure information technology programs meet cost and schedule estimates aren't consistent, says an April 17 Government Accountability Office report (.pdf).
DISA says commercial cloud computing middleman function at IOC
The Defense Information Systems Agency announced April 16 it has achieved initial operational capacity as the commercial cloud computing middleman for the Defense Department--despite its acknowledgment that it has yet to fully approve for DoD use any FedRAMP-authorized commercial cloud service providers.
Shared First gets a catalog and an implementation guide
The Federal CIO Council released April 16 a catalog of shared services in furtherance of the Office of Management and Budget policy of Shared First. The contents of the catalog, which are not classified, aren't public. The council also released an implementation guide (.pdf) that outlines steps agencies should undertake to implement shared services.
House approves two federal cybersecurity bills
The Federal Information Security Amendments Act of 2013 (H.R. 1163), secured a 416-0 vote with 16 representatives not present; it would amend the Federal Information Security Management Act in ways similar to legislation the House approved in 2012 but which the Senate did not take up.
GAO: IRS needs long-term web strategy
In an effort to improve its website, the Internal Revenue Service launched short projects to deliver interactive tools and longer-term projects to improve foundational infrastructure, but it has no overarching strategy for its website, says the Government Accountability in an April 16 report (.pdf).
CISPA heads to House floor; White House issues veto threat
The White House veto threat (.pdf), issued before the rules committee approved the final rule via voice vote, cites CISPA's (H.R. 624) broad authorization of information sharing between companies and the federal government, stating that the Homeland Security Department should be the point of entry for private sector threat information. CISPA would permit civilian, military or intelligence agencies to directly receive private sector threat information, a feature opponents say would undermine civilian control of national cybersecurity measures and amount to surveillance of Internet users.
2014 Budget Request: DARPA
Spending at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency would go down slightly under the White House fiscal 2014 budget proposal when the agency's requested amount is adjusted for the Office of Management and Budget's projected rate of inflation.
2014 Budget Request: NARA
The National Archives and Records Administration requests total appropriations of $385.84 million for the coming fiscal year in the budget proposal the Obama administration sent to Congress April 10.
2014 Budget Request: DoD OCIO, DCMO and OSD technology
Funding for the Defense Department office of the chief information officer would go down in the coming fiscal year, as would funding for the deputy chief management officer and many defensewide technology efforts, shows data from the fiscal 2014 budget request the Obama administration sent to Congress April 10.
2014 Budget Request: FAA NextGen
The fiscal 2014 budget request the Obama administration sent to Congress April 10 includes a nearly 4 percent increase to funding for the Federal Aviation Administration air traffic modernization effort known as NextGen.
2014 Budget Request: ONC
The president's fiscal 2014 budget proposal requests $78 million for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. The increase in funding is in part because ONCHIT funding under the Recovery Act ends in fiscal 2013, says the Health and Human Services Department's budget in brief (.pdf).
CISPA clears House Intelligence Committee
Privacy advocates continue to oppose the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (H.R. 624) after the House Intelligence Committee voted 18-2 for it April 10, saying that amendments added to the bill don't account for all their objections. The committee defeated four amendments that would gone further to address critics, including one (.pdf) proposed by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) that would have restricted the flow of cyber threat information sharing from companies to civilian agencies.
2014 Budget Request: DHS IT
The fiscal 2014 budget proposal the Obama administration sent to Congress on April 10 carries mixed results for major Homeland Security Department information technology efforts. Total funding for the DHS office of the chief information officer would go down by 1.2 percent when taking into account Office of Management and Budget-projected inflation.
Audio: Steven VanRoekel on the fiscal 2014 federal IT Budget
Federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel spoke with reporters April 10 about information technology aspects of the Obama administration's fiscal 2014 budget proposal, which it transmitted to Congress that day.
2014 Budget Request: NOAA
Under President Obama's fiscal 2014 budget request, NOAA would receive a total budget authority of $3.4 billion, or 1.47 percent more than funding under the current year's continuing resolution.
2014 Budget Request: NIST
Under President Obama's fiscal 2014 budget request NIST would receive a total discretionary budget authority of $934 million, or 19.59 percent more than the current year amount under the continuing resolution when accounting for inflation.
2014 Budget Request: NTIA
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration requests $52 million in discretionary appropriations in the fiscal 2014 budget request the Obama administration sent to Congress April 10.
2014 Budget Request: E-gov and IEEUIT
The Obama administration in its fiscal 2014 budget request proposes $20 million for the General Services Administration e-government fund and $14 million for a fund controlled by the federal chief information officer. Typically the Obama administration request significantly more for the e-gov fund, housed in the General Services Administration, than Congress appropriates. Taking into account inflation, the fiscal 2014 request of $20 million would be a 63 percent increase over the current year amount.
2014 Budget Request: Veterans Affairs
Under President Obama's fiscal 2014 budget request, information technology systems at the Veterans Affairs Department would receive a total discretionary budget authority of $3.683 billion. That means the budget for IT systems would be 15.16 percent more than the current year amount under the continuing resolution when accounting for inflation.
