Idea to retire: A federal budget process that inhibits IT innovation

[Commentary] The federal budget process has great benefit for governing the $3 trillion in spending that agencies conduct each year. Through the budget process, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is able to develop resource allocations for thousands of government programs, work with congressional appropriations committees to enact them, and oversee performance. At the same time, the budget process is lengthy and complex and a hindrance to rapid innovation. For example, the budget agreement that Congress reached in December 2015 required agencies to propose new ideas starting in spring 2014, and spending on those priorities will likely not conclude until the fall of 2016. Any change within this two-year-plus time horizon comes within the context of priorities set at the beginning of the two-year cycle. This long term planning cycle has great benefit for capital investment.

At the same time, these processes limit any course correction since any rebalancing of investment priorities must often be accompanied by complex and lengthy reprogramming requests. Reforming the current rules that call for all development spending to be treated in the same way as operations spending would be a significant benefit for government IT innovation.

[Dan Chenok is executive director of the IBM Center for The Business of Government]