VA IT may get a huge windfall

The Senate Appropriation Committee recently gave the heads up to the Department of Veterans Affairs for more than $3.3 billion for information technology in 2010. The money, still in the hopper, would be nearly $767 million more than this year's budget for the VA's Information Technology Systems programs. And it comes at a time when the VA's systems are hurting, and when there is enormous pressure to bring the agency's technology up-to-speed.

The funding meets the levels requested by President Obama, and mirrors the spending approved by the House Appropriations Committee in June. The money would go toward VA projects to develop electronic health care records, process claims electronically, and integrate medical records from the Defense Department as soldiers retire and become eligible for veterans' benefits.

The VA has talked about modernizing its systems for years, bringing its medical records in sync with the Defense Department and fully utilizing electronic systems. This funding would take the VA a long way toward achieving many of these results.

For more on the VA's 2010 IT budget:
- check out this Federal Computer Week article