Planning Toward FY 2022 – A Peek at the Federal Budget

The Biden Administration recently issued its request for 2022 spending. This practice is really more of a policy effort than actual budgeting, but serves to illustrate administration priorities to inform agencies as to what is likely to get approved in the final budget. The 2022 budget request has a number of IT-specific priorities, starting with the funding of the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) at another $500 million for fiscal 2022. This would be in addition to the $1 billion that was invested as part of the American Rescue Plan Act--money that helped support the ongoing effort to digitize government services and operations.

The $58.4 billion in IT spending includes marked increases in the IT budgets of the Treasury Department, Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Homeland Security. NASA and the Department of Commerce had small reductions to its IT budgets.

Not surprisingly within IT spending, cybersecurity is a big line item at $9.8 billion, a 14% increase over 2021. The DoD reports it will request $10.4 billion in their budget, pushing overall government spending on cybersecurity over $20 billion--the highest investment ever.

The Quality Service Management Organization (QSMO) shared services approach organized by the Trump Administration will continue with a request for $50 million in funding. The four QSMOs -- financial services at Treasury, grants management at the Department of Health and Human Services, human resources at the General Services Administration, and cybersecurity at Homeland Security seem poised to continue with current planning and execution.

As the numbers become more clear over the coming months and the budget works its way through approval, there are a number of events and resources that can help you stay up to date on administration priorities.

• 400G: Network Modernization Strategies and Considerations (July 27, 2021; webcast) -- 400G network upgrades provide the potential to accommodate future jumps to 800G data rates and beyond. This webinar will discuss network modernization strategies, the emergence/deployment of 400G digital coherent optics (DCO) and the new dynamic of multi-vendor interoperability, considerations of 400G network upgrades with supply chain constraints, and 400G breakout architectures deployment complexities in a mixed vendor environment.
• 2021 Digital Transformation Seminar (August 10, 2021; virtual) -- Notable federal executives and thought leaders from across the federal landscape discuss how they are transforming their organizations through the adoption of strategic technologies.
• FCW Editorial Webcast: The Evolution of Edge Computing (August 10, 2021; webcast) -- The proliferation of internet-of-things sensors and an increasingly mobile workforce are pushing essential IT operations even farther from the data center. Government employees and military personnel increasingly need robust capabilities in the field, and decision-makers need fast access to data analytics. All those factors are driving agencies' interest in computing that happens at the network edge.
• Reimagining the Contact Center Experience (August 18, 2021; webinar) -- Join leaders from a U.S. Federal Health agency, Deloitte, and Salesforce to learn how leading organizations are reimagining the contact center experience with a focus on the future of service through the use of innovative technologies to elevate the agent experience and customer relationships.
• DOE Modernization and Transformation Forum (September 1, 2021; virtual) -- As innovative digital technologies such as the Cloud, artificial intelligence and others grow in importance, federal organizations must evolve their information technology (IT) systems to be robust, agile and reliable. As such, the Department of Energy (DOE) is enacting significant initiatives aimed at modernizing and transforming its IT infrastructure.
• Methodologies, Toolchains, and Security, Oh My! Insights from the 2021 ATARC Federal DevSecOps Survey (infographic) -- The Advanced Technology Academic Research Center (ATARC), in partnership with the U.S. Air Force, conducted a large-scale survey on the current status, challenges, successes, and vision for the future in the Federal DevSecOps landscape. This piece looks at the critical nature of instituting modern planning tools and methodologies, the benefits of toolchain integration, and explaining how to "shift security left."
• Progress and Challenges in Modernizing DHS' IT Systems and Infrastructure (white paper) -- The DHS 2019-2023 IT strategic plan included two distinct department-wide IT modernization initiatives: to adopt cloud based computing and to consolidate data centers. However, not all components have complied with or fully embraced these efforts due to a lack of standard guidance and funding. Without consistent implementation of these efforts, DHS components remain hindered in their ability to provide personnel with more enhanced, up-to-date technology.

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