2013 Federal IT Budget Flat at $78.8 Billion

President Barack Obama's 2013 budget proposal includes $78.88 billion for information technology, with efforts to enable electronic health care driving some of the more significant increases at the departments of Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs.

President Obama's IT budget proposal is .7 percent less than the amount enacted in fiscal 2012, with the departments of Defense, Commerce and Energy among the major cabinet-level agencies experiencing cuts...

...Three of the major departments to see IT budgets go up included the Treasury Department, HHS and the VA, the former of which will use its 11.1 percent increase included in its $3.58 billion IT budget to undergo a business system modernization for improving citizen access to tax filing resources. The 2.6 percent increase included in HHS's $7.14 billion IT budget will support efforts to improve customer access to health care program information and point-of-care medical systems. The 6.9 increase included in the VA's $3.33 billion IT budget will support its Blue Button initiative to provide veterans with a simple way to access and download health records electronically...