Obama administration hints at flat IT budgets

The sunny days of a growing federal IT budget may soon be over.

Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag spoke this week at a leadership breakfast, hinting that the $80 billion federal IT budget may stall in size. He made these comments at the same time that he acknowledged the federal government still houses old IT to run government, a problem he called the "IT gap."

With the IT gap, "it's impossible to move to a new level of productivity" in government, Orszag said. Nevertheless he believes that money's not the real issue. "[We need] better management of the money we are already spending," he said.

The Obama administration proposed a relatively flat IT budget for fiscal 2011. Federal CIO Vivek Kundra has signaled that every IT project in government will be scrutinized to make sure it is on time and on budget.

For more on Orszag's comments:
- read this nextgov.com article