E-government funds slashed in newly-introduced budget

The General Services Administration's electronic government fund will be slashed under the presumptive fiscal 2011 budget, introduced April 11 into the House as H.R. 1473 (.pdf). The House now has three days to approve the legislation before it moves to the Senate for passage.

Section 1552 of the bill funds what is known as GSA's e-government fund at $8 million for the entirety of fiscal 2011, a significant cut when compared to $34 million, the amount enacted in fiscal 2010 and requested for fiscal 2011 and 2012 for the fund.

When asked about the cuts to e-government at an April 12 hearing, Federal CIO Vivek Kundra said he is still "evaluating the implications."

"We are going to have to make some tough decisions around which systems are going to have to go offline, versus what can be supported with an $8 million fund. This is very recent news, we haven't had a chance to really sit down and prioritize systems."

The e-government fund supports Office of Management and Budget-led websites such as the IT dashboard, data.gov, paymentaccuracy.gov, usaspending.gov and app.gov.

Some e-government fund projects might exhibit greater durability in the face of uncertain funding than others. A GSA official said April 8 FedRAMP would likely dodge possible budget cuts, despite being funded by the e-government fund because FedRAMP will soon operate within GSA's Federal Acquisition Service, putting the program in a different budget line.

USAspending.gov, could also be safer than other e-government programs because it is the result of a congressional mandate found in the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006. That bill was sponsored by then Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and the still-serving Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.). 

Watchdogs have publically worried that funding for OMB websites and projects within the e-gov program would be cut from a future, and most likely scaled-down budget.

The basis of this bill comes from a deal struck by Republicans and Democrats just two hours before the last continuing resolution was set to expire on April 8, barely averting a government shutdown.

For more:
- see the full text of the budget bill, H.R. 1473 (.pdf)
- watch video from the April 12 hearing

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