House e-government provision falls $44M short of Bush request

The 2004 Transportation-Treasury appropriations bill passed by the House Tuesday night allots $1 million to an interagency fund supporting electronic government projects-an amount well below that requested by President Bush and authorized in previous legislation.

The Senate Appropriations Committee last week approved $5 million for the interagency fund, the same amount the fund received for fiscal 2003.

Both sums fall at least $40 million short of President Bush's $45 million request for the fund, and the amount authorized in an e-government bill signed by President Bush on Dec. 17, 2002. That bill grants $345 million to fund interagency technology initiatives over four years, allowing $45 million for fiscal 2003, $50 million for fiscal 2004, $100 million for fiscal 2005 and $150 million for fiscal 2006.

The Information Technology Association of America, an Arlington, Va.-based trade group, is disappointed with the funding level approved by the House, given the "high priority the administration, many in Congress, industry and citizens have placed on e-government, " said ITAA President Harris Miller. "We hope there is still an opportunity to work with congressional appropriators to increase the amount."

A lack of adequate funding for e-government projects is one of several challenges that Karen Evans, Bush's nominee to replace Mark Forman as the federal government's technology chief, will face in her new role, according to George Molaski, president and chief executive officer of E-Associates LLC, a technology consulting company in Falls Church, Va.

"I think she's got a very tough job ahead of her," Molaski said in an interview last week. "She's going to spend a lot of time as a bill collector."