IT budget request focuses on savings

The Army Corps of Engineers expects to save $500 million over five years by consolidating information technology services, a strategy that enabled the corps to lower its fiscal 2009 IT budget request by $221 million compared with this year’s enacted funding.

President Bush’s proposed budget for the corps reflects a 36 percent decrease, the largest percentage among all agencies. Congress gave the corps $613 million in its 2008 omnibus spending bill, but the corps requested only $392 million for next year, budget documents show.

Much of the decrease can be attributed to the corps’ plans to shut down incompatible data warehouses and consolidate help-desk operations so that 56 installations can operate as a single enterprise. The streamlining “really forced us to sharpen our pencils,” said Wil Berrios, the agency’s chief information officer.

The corps’ approach is one example of a larger theme throughout the IT budget.

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