Bush Plan Calls for More IT Spending

Computerworld - President George Bush's proposed budget for the federal government's 2006 fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1, includes an increase in IT spending, despite significant cuts elsewhere.
The plan also asks Congress to permanently extend a research and development tax credit while terminating a program to develop high-risk, high-payoff technology.
The 2006 Bush budget cuts back or eliminates 150 government programs while calling for a 7% increase in government IT spending, to $65.1 billion. About 55% of IT-related funding would go to defense and domestic security programs. At the same time, the plan raises IT funding for the National Science Foundation by nearly 26%.
Separately, Bush's science and technology budget would drop from an estimated $61.7 billion in fiscal 2005 to $60.8 billion in 2006. The science and technology budget includes programs such as space exploration, renewable energy and agricultural research, as well as technology-related research and development at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Spending for information security at 17 federal agencies would increase by $113 million, or more than 7%, if Congress approves Bush's budget plan. The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), an industry trade group, praised the IT budget plan.
"America must pick up the pace in science, math and engineering," ITAA President Harris Miller said in a statement. "Countries around the world have clearly signaled their intent to challenge U.S. leadership in technology. Our economic well-being depends on answering this challenge."
Research Tax Credit
Bush's budget plan would also provide $27 billion through 2010 for the Research and Experimentation Tax Credit.
First passed as a temporary edict in 1981 and extended multiple times, the tax credit allows U.S. companies a credit of up to 10% of R&D spending.
At the same time, Bush's 2006 budget would eliminate the NIST Advanced Technology Program, which provides funding for high-risk, high-payoff private-sector technology R&D, according to NIST.
Bush has been trying to eliminate or make major cuts in the program since taking office in 2001, but Democrats in Congress have fought the effort.
The Advanced Technology Program received an estimated $137 million in funding in the 2005 budget.
The funds in the program can be better used in other areas, said John Marburger, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Gross is a reporter for the IDG News Service.