House Oversight Chairman Calls IT Budget Request Misleading

This post has been updated to add comment from Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va.

The chairman of the House committee that oversees most government information technology spending on Thursday criticized the $82 billion IT request included in President Obama’s fiscal 2014 budget proposal, saying the figure is likely misleading.

The Obama administration has prided itself on holding overall IT spending essentially flat following increases of about 7 percent annually between 2000 and 2009. If that growth rate had continued, annual IT spending would be about $111 billion today.

The $82 billion figure reported by the Office of Management and Budget on Wednesday does not include IT spending by intelligence agencies or by numerous small independent agencies, however. As a result, it’s difficult to say it represents a genuine slowing or halting of government IT spending growth, House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said.