More IT Spending for 2009?

Spending on information technology in the federal government has been flat at best for the last few years -- a trend that is unequal in modern times. The government’s fiscal 2008 IT budget hardly budged from fiscal 2007, dropping slightly to $68.1 billion in fiscal 2008 from $68.2 billion in fiscal 2007, according to the Office of Management and Budget. That followed a 2 percent drop in the federal IT budget from fiscal 2006 to fiscal 2007, Government Executive reports in its annual top 200 contractor issue coming out Aug. 15.

But the drought may be over, Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., told Nextgov this week. Moran, who sits on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, predicted that Congress would give agencies, particularly Defense, a bit of a hike, although he didn't say how much. Defense's IT budget dropped in fiscal 2008, from $34.4 billion in fiscal 2007 to $33.1 billion. And President Bush proposed another flat year for fiscal 2009, a budget of $33 billion.

But Moran said IT is "the one area where we most need to maintain a competitive edge over everyone else. I think it will continue to be a growth industry -- more so than some of the heavy weapons" programs.

Some of that may be wishful thinking. Moran's 8th district includes the federal headquarters for some of the biggest Defense IT contractors, was well as as tech companies that serve the civilian agencies, all of which makes his district one of the richest in IT contract spending (more to come on that later).