House Appropriations Reduces VA Fiscal 2012 IT Budget

Veterans Affairs Department spending on information technology would have to go down slightly next fiscal year if the House Appropriations Committee gets its way.

The committee voted May 31 to send the department's annual spending bill for debate and amendment to the House floor. The committee's markup includes a reduction of $136.38 million to the VA information technology request of $3.16 billion. The committee instead would have the VA spend $3.02 billion on IT in fiscal 2012, an amount that's $25.1 million more than current fiscal year amount, the report accompanying the bill states.

Federal fiscal years begin each Oct. 1; it is now late in the third quarter of fiscal 2011.