Cuts to E-Gov Fund Could Slow Federal Cloud Transition

Current funding levels for electronic government initiatives in the House and Senate Appropriations committees could cripple the government's ability to modernize federal information technology and thereby save money in the long run, a General Services Administration official told lawmakers Wednesday.

That includes new security and certification projects aimed at helping agencies transition their data storage to more nimble cloud computing, a governmentwide initiative that officials expect to save $5 billion annually, GSA Associate Administrator Dave McClure said.

The White House requested $34 million in fiscal 2012 appropriations for the E-Government fund, which pays for a hodgepodge of initiatives ranging from the GSA's FedRAMP, a governmentwide security certification for cloud vendors, to numerous open government initiatives developed at the Office of Management and Budget...