President Trump Budget Request Seeks $150 Million for Tech Modernization Fund

President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2020 budget request seeks $150 million in new funding for the Technology Modernization Fund, which provides seed money to governmentwide IT projects that agencies are ultimately expected to pay back. So far, TMF has funded seven projects totaling close to $90 million of the total $125 million Congress authorized for the program. The president’s request for more TMF funding is far from a certainty. Appropriations for TMF were only authorized through the 2018 and 2019 budgets through the Modernizing Government Technology Act. Additional funding in future appropriations bills would require a fresh authorization from Congress. The administration’s top line budget dropped March 11, but most agencies would not release their full budget requests until the week of March 18. However, there were other notable IT requests:

• The Veterans Affairs Department would get $4.3 billion for “essential investments in IT,” including $200 million for cloud computing and an additional $1.6 billion for its electronic health records modernization.
• The General Services Administration would get $25.9 million to “support the governmentwide management of IT reporting, including management of the Federal IT Dashboard, and to establish a new project management office for the governmentwide implementation of Technology Business Management principles.” The agency also would get $58.4 million for the Federal Citizen Services Fund “to support programs and activities that enhance cybersecurity and citizens’ ability to securely interact with federal agencies.”
• The National Archives and Records Administration would receive $22 million to modernize the agency’s work processes and transition its paper records to electronic formats, “with the stated goal of ending NARA’s acceptance of paper records” by Dec. 31, 2022.