$50 Million Budget for Integrated E-Gov

President Obama reinforced his call to modernize government by asking Congress to spend tens of millions of dollars over three years on governmentwide innovations.

The fiscal 2011 budget creates a $50 million account for the "integrated, efficient and effective uses of information technology." Acceptable uses of the money include governmentwide shared IT resources, consolidated and energy-efficient platforms, IT security services and architectural assistance to make agency IT systems talk to each other better. The Office of Management and Budget would control the pool of money from 2011 through Sept. 2013. The fiscal move reflects a new attitude toward federal IT. Throughout his first year in office, Obama has pulled together a team of high-ranking officials, from senior advisers to deputy secretaries, who are depending on IT to improve how the government delivers services and formulates policies.